This Week in Science: Iceman Microbes, Bawdy Birds, And Much More!
Researchers found live cold-tolerant yeasts on the 5,300-year-old mummy, and samples from 2019 showed more recent DNA than those from 2010.
- Scientists have detected living yeasts inside the body of Ötzi the Iceman, identifying four cold-tolerant strains—Phenolifera, Glaciozyma, Goffeauzyma, and Mrakia—on his skin, in his stomach, and in body water samples.
- Dying violently about 5,300 years ago in the Alpine region near the Italy-Austria border, the Iceman was naturally preserved, allowing yeasts to colonize his body shortly after death.
- Using shotgun metagenomics, microbiologist Mohamed Sarhan and colleagues analyzed the mummy's microbial landscape, differentiating between ancient DNA fragments and living yeasts actively reproducing at a glacial pace.
- Frank Maxiner, director of the Institute for Mummy Studies at Eurac, noted these yeasts have accompanied the mummy through the millennia, while the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology maintains the body at-6° Celsius.
- This comprehensive analysis of the mummy's microbiome provides a rare window into a Copper Age ecosystem, potentially helping scientists better understand ancient microbial life and its long-term survival in preserved human remains.
14 Articles
14 Articles
The "ice mummy" Ötzi continues to deliver. Now, researchers have succeeded in baking sourdough bread with yeast fungi from the 5,000-year-old body.
News & Record
Winston-Salem JournalScientists reveal Iceman's dynamic microbial world
Ötzi the Iceman died violently about 5,300 years ago in the Alpine region of the modern border between Italy and Austria. An arrowhead was found lodged in his left shoulder, having caused fatal bleeding when he was attacked in mountainous…
One man's death, another man's bread. Scientists have baked sourdough on the 5,000-year-old iceman Ötzi. Now he may also become beer.
Many of us sometimes goof around at work. That's what researchers at Eurac Research's Mummy Research Institute have done. They first discovered that yeast strains, among other microorganisms, were found in the body of Ötzi, the 5,000-year-old mummy found in 1991. And that's when the idea came: what if they baked bread with this yeast? "We ended up with a completely normal dough that rose in 24 hours, basically the same way as with traditional ye…
Scientists Bake Bread Using Ancient Yeast Revived From Ötzi The Iceman Mummy
Scientists studying the 5,300-year-old remains of Ötzi the Iceman have successfully baked sourdough bread using yeast discovered on and inside the famous mummy, opening the door to potential new applications in food science and ancient microbiology. Ötzi, whose naturally preserved remains were discovered by hikers in the Tyrolean Alps near the Italy-Austria border in 1991, has been the subject of extensive scientific research for decades. Previo…
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