A decade after the dairy discovery on strikingly intact remains mummified by the Taklamakan Desert’s arid conditions, scientists have extracted and sequenced DNA from the 3,600-year-old cheese, the oldest in the archaeological record.
Fu is director of the ancient DNA laboratory at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing.
The researchers recovered animal and microbe DNA from the kefir cheese discovered on the Tarim Basin mummies.
Fu and her colleagues also sequenced the bacterial genes in the ancient kefir cheese, revealing insights into how probiotic bacteria evolved over the past 3,600 years.
“Ancient DNA analysis, especially on microbes, is fraught with technical problems, mostly stemming from contamination by modern bacteria,” he added.
Persons:
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Organizations:
CNN, Cell, Social Sciences, Harvard University, Vertebrate Paleontology, University of Arkansas, University of Colorado, school’s
Locations:
what’s, China, ”, Beijing, Tarim, China’s Xinjiang, Asia, Russia, Tibet, United States, Japan, Caucasus, Anatolia, University of Colorado Boulder