Reviving Ancient Molecules: Scientists Make Breakthrough
Originally Published 2 years ago — by Phys.org
Scientists have reconstructed bacterial genomes of previously unknown bacteria dating to the Pleistocene using ancient DNA and built a biotechnology platform to revive the ancient bacteria's natural products. The team focused on reconstructing bacterial genomes encased within dental calculus from 12 Neanderthals dating to about 102,000–40,000 years ago, 34 archaeological humans dating to about 30,000–150 years ago, and 18 present-day humans. The team used the tools of synthetic molecular biotechnology to allow living bacteria to produce the chemicals encoded by the ancient genes, resulting in the discovery of a new family of microbial natural products that the researchers named "paleofurans."