Preservation of collagen in the soft tissues of frozen mammoths
We investigated the characteristics of extracellular matrix (ECM) in the soft tissue of two frozen baby woolly mammoths ( Mammuthus primigenius ) that died and were buried in Siberian permafrost approximately 40,000 years ago. Morphological and biochemical analyses of mammoth lung and liver demonstr...
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crplos:10.1371/journal.pone.0258699 2024-06-23T07:56:07+00:00 Preservation of collagen in the soft tissues of frozen mammoths Hattori, Shunji Kiriyama-Tanaka, Tomomi Kusubata, Masashi Taga, Yuki Ebihara, Testuya Kumazawa, Yuki Imai, Katsuyuki Miura, Mitsutaka Mezaki, Yoshihiro Tikhonov, Alexei Senoo, Haruki Jabbari, Esmaiel 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258699 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258699 en eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ PLOS ONE volume 16, issue 10, page e0258699 ISSN 1932-6203 journal-article 2021 crplos https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258699 2024-06-04T06:17:58Z We investigated the characteristics of extracellular matrix (ECM) in the soft tissue of two frozen baby woolly mammoths ( Mammuthus primigenius ) that died and were buried in Siberian permafrost approximately 40,000 years ago. Morphological and biochemical analyses of mammoth lung and liver demonstrated that those soft tissues were preserved at the gross anatomical and histological levels. The ultrastructure of ECM components, namely a fibrillar structure with a collagen-characteristic pattern of cross-striation, was clearly visible with transmission and scanning electron microscopy. Type I and type IV collagens were detected by immunohistochemical observation. Quantitative amino acid analysis of liver and lung tissues of the baby mammoths indicated that collagenous protein is selectively preserved in these tissues as a main protein. Type I and type III collagens were detected as major components by means of liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis after digestion with trypsin. These results indicate that the triple helical collagen molecule, which is resistant to proteinase digestion, has been preserved in the soft tissues of these frozen mammoths for 40,000 years. Article in Journal/Newspaper permafrost PLOS PLOS ONE 16 10 e0258699 |
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English |
description |
We investigated the characteristics of extracellular matrix (ECM) in the soft tissue of two frozen baby woolly mammoths ( Mammuthus primigenius ) that died and were buried in Siberian permafrost approximately 40,000 years ago. Morphological and biochemical analyses of mammoth lung and liver demonstrated that those soft tissues were preserved at the gross anatomical and histological levels. The ultrastructure of ECM components, namely a fibrillar structure with a collagen-characteristic pattern of cross-striation, was clearly visible with transmission and scanning electron microscopy. Type I and type IV collagens were detected by immunohistochemical observation. Quantitative amino acid analysis of liver and lung tissues of the baby mammoths indicated that collagenous protein is selectively preserved in these tissues as a main protein. Type I and type III collagens were detected as major components by means of liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis after digestion with trypsin. These results indicate that the triple helical collagen molecule, which is resistant to proteinase digestion, has been preserved in the soft tissues of these frozen mammoths for 40,000 years. |
author2 |
Jabbari, Esmaiel |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hattori, Shunji Kiriyama-Tanaka, Tomomi Kusubata, Masashi Taga, Yuki Ebihara, Testuya Kumazawa, Yuki Imai, Katsuyuki Miura, Mitsutaka Mezaki, Yoshihiro Tikhonov, Alexei Senoo, Haruki |
spellingShingle |
Hattori, Shunji Kiriyama-Tanaka, Tomomi Kusubata, Masashi Taga, Yuki Ebihara, Testuya Kumazawa, Yuki Imai, Katsuyuki Miura, Mitsutaka Mezaki, Yoshihiro Tikhonov, Alexei Senoo, Haruki Preservation of collagen in the soft tissues of frozen mammoths |
author_facet |
Hattori, Shunji Kiriyama-Tanaka, Tomomi Kusubata, Masashi Taga, Yuki Ebihara, Testuya Kumazawa, Yuki Imai, Katsuyuki Miura, Mitsutaka Mezaki, Yoshihiro Tikhonov, Alexei Senoo, Haruki |
author_sort |
Hattori, Shunji |
title |
Preservation of collagen in the soft tissues of frozen mammoths |
title_short |
Preservation of collagen in the soft tissues of frozen mammoths |
title_full |
Preservation of collagen in the soft tissues of frozen mammoths |
title_fullStr |
Preservation of collagen in the soft tissues of frozen mammoths |
title_full_unstemmed |
Preservation of collagen in the soft tissues of frozen mammoths |
title_sort |
preservation of collagen in the soft tissues of frozen mammoths |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258699 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258699 |
genre |
permafrost |
genre_facet |
permafrost |
op_source |
PLOS ONE volume 16, issue 10, page e0258699 ISSN 1932-6203 |
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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258699 |
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e0258699 |
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