Decoding the biological information contained in two ancient Slavonic parchment codices: an added historical value

Abstract

Summary This study provides an example in the emerging field of biocodicology showing how metagenomics can help answer relevant questions that may contribute to a better understanding of the history of ancient manuscripts. To this end, two Slavonic codices dating from the 11th century were investigated through shotgun metagenomics. Endogenous DNA enabled to infer the animal origin of the skins used in the manufacture of the two codices, while nucleic sequences recovered from viruses were investigated for the first time in this material, opening up new possibilities in the field of biocodicology. In addition, the microbiomes colonizing the surface of the parchments served to determine their conservation status and their latent risk of deterioration. The saline environment provided by the parchments selected halophilic and halotolerant microorganisms, which are known to be responsible for the biodegradation of parchment. Species of Nocardiopsis, Gracilibacillus and Saccharopolyspora, but also members of the Aspergillaceae family were detected in this study, all possessing enzymatic capabilities for the biodeterioration of this material. Finally, a relative abundance of microorganisms originating from the human skin microbiome were identified, most probably related to the intensive manipulation of the manuscripts throughout the centuries, which should be taken with caution as they can be potential pathogens.

The Integration of Metagenomics and Chemical Physical Techniques Biodecoded the Buried Traces of the Biodeteriogens of Parchment Purple Spots

“…The RAMAN spectra were also compared with the results obtained on conventionally cultured Halobacterium ( Migliore et al, 2019 ). The presence of Halobacteriales in damaged parchments has been later confirmed also by Piñar et al (2020) .…”

“…It is therefore utilized in many research fields, including Biocodicology ( Fiddyment et al, 2019 ), aimed to unlock biological signals, including ancient DNAs associated to the parchment, providing a deeper understanding of the artworks. Metagenomic techniques have been useful to shed light on the animal origin of the skins of archeological parchment fragments ( Teasdale et al, 2015 ; Shepherd et al, 2019 ; Anava et al, 2020 ; Piñar et al, 2020 ) or to get the enumeration of different kind of parchment colonizers ( Piñar et al, 2020 ). In the last years, metagenomics demonstrated to be pivotal in finding the causative agents and the colonization dynamics leading to parchment biodeterioration.…”

The Microbiome of Leonardo da Vinci’s Drawings: A Bio-Archive of Their History

“…Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies have evolved incorporating revolutionary improvements to address the complexities of genomes and metagenomes at an unprecedented speed (Goodwin et al, 2016), being now well established in the field of cultural heritage. These analyses can be performed either by the socalled "shotgun metagenomic approach," by sequencing the entire DNA library representing all the molecular components of a given sample (Teasdale et al, 2017;Piñar et al, 2020b), or by focusing on specific conserved sequences such as ribosomal RNA genes (Marvasi et al, 2019). The latter approach called "target amplification approach" has some advantages, such as the reduction of data complexity, the possibility to assign more sequences to specific organisms and finally, facilitates some semiquantitative analysis.…”

“…Although molecular techniques are not completely free from bias (Sterflinger et al, 2018a), the establishment of nextand third-generation sequencing technologies in the field of cultural heritage is providing a powerful DNA-based approach to monitor the preservation status as well as to foresee the risk of deterioration of valuable objects (Piñar et al, 2020a). The data generated can provide interesting information that can contribute to surprising insights into the objects being investigated, such as the selection of materials at the time of manufacture and the conditions of their storage or about possible displacements and geographical origins, but also uncover important information about the object's history of use (Teasdale et al, 2017;Piñar et al, 2019Piñar et al, , 2020b. This information may help to understand many open questions in a variety of fields, as archeology, history, restoration, philology, criminology but also, they can contribute to giving an historical benefit to the investigated objects in form of a bio-archive (Piñar et al, 2019(Piñar et al, , 2020b.…”

“…The data generated can provide interesting information that can contribute to surprising insights into the objects being investigated, such as the selection of materials at the time of manufacture and the conditions of their storage or about possible displacements and geographical origins, but also uncover important information about the object's history of use (Teasdale et al, 2017;Piñar et al, 2019Piñar et al, , 2020b. This information may help to understand many open questions in a variety of fields, as archeology, history, restoration, philology, criminology but also, they can contribute to giving an historical benefit to the investigated objects in form of a bio-archive (Piñar et al, 2019(Piñar et al, , 2020b.…”