Of mammoths, microbes and molecules, paleometagenomes from the past

猛犸象、微生物和分子，来自过去的古宏基因组

• 批准号: RGPIN-2015-04184
• 负责人: Poinar, Hendrik
• 金额: $ 3.28万
• 依托单位: McMaster University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2017-01-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=628853
• 关键词: mammoths; microbes; molecules; paleometagenomes; past

Abundant and compelling evidence indicates that the planetary climate system is moving toward states not equalled in the last 120,000 years. The implications of these warming trends on ‘whole-ecosystem’ (i.e microbial, faunal, floral and insect) diversity remain unknown. One way to test this is to look back in time. Approximately 11,000 years ago more than 100 species of large mammals and birds went extinct in North America. While the precise causes of these losses remains unclear their underlying consequences remain exceptionally pertinent today, given our rapidly warming artic. How will biota respond given the rapidly warming north? One way to address this is to evaluate how they responded in the past, to prior climatic shits, ones that were equally or more drastic. Using genetic signatures gleaned from fossil remains, (both mammalian and microbial) we will investigate how populations responded to similar climatic shifts in the past and use this information to help prepare us for looming losses in the near future. With these data we can begin to address questions such as why was it that some went extinct (mammoth, mastodons, sloths, horses) while others persisted (bison, bears)? While many argue that climate was the direct cause of these losses, others have suggested that humans (big game hunters) played a critical role in their final demise. Perhaps effective population sizes were so small post glacial time periods that they were effectively at a ‘tipping point’, and that humans dealt the final blow.

大量令人信服的证据表明，地球气候系统正在走向过去 12 万年以来前所未有的状态，这些变暖趋势对“整个生态系统”（即微生物、动物、花卉和昆虫）多样性的影响仍然未知。为了验证这一点，我们需要回顾一下大约 11,000 年前，北美有 100 多种大型哺乳动物和鸟类灭绝。这些损失的确切原因仍不清楚，考虑到我们的快速变暖的文章，生物群将如何应对北方的快速变暖，其潜在的后果仍然非常重要。 ，利用从化石遗骸（包括哺乳动物和微生物）中收集的遗传特征，我们将研究种群如何应对过去类似的气候变化，并利用这些信息帮助我们为即将到来的损失做好准备。有了这些数据，我们就可以开始解决一些问题，例如为什么有些物种灭绝了（猛犸象、乳齿象、树懒、马），而另一些物种却持续存在（野牛、熊）？其他人认为，人类（大型猎物狩猎者）在它们的最终灭亡中发挥了关键作用，也许冰河期后的有效种群规模很小，以至于它们实际上处于“临界点”，而人类造成了最后的打击。 。