Interestingly, we discovered the expression of muscle-specific protein-coding and #microRNA genes. We were even able to detect two completely novel microRNAs solely based on #RNA data!

Yuka was thought to be a female ♀️ mammoth, based on previous external examination. Surprisingly, we found evidence at both #RNA and #DNA levels revealing that Yuka was in fact a male! ♂️

The ancient #RNA sequences from Yuka showed increased chemical damage, as expected for such old molecules.

The best performing sample was mammoth 1, also known as #Yuka, a 5-year-old juvenile woolly mammoth that died nearly 40,000 years ago and that is one of the best preserved specimens ever found.

Only 3 out of the 10 mammoths had #RNA and #DNA of good quality, and the ancient RNA molecules were strongly concentrated in exonic regions.

We extracted both ancient #RNA and #DNA from soft tissues that have been preserved in the Siberian permafrost for thousands of years.

Did we find any mammoth-like molecules? Yes ✅, both in the RNA and DNA fraction, but not for all the mammoths we analyzed.

🦣🧬🦣🤯💥We are pleased to share our new paper about ancient RNA expression profiles from the Woolly Mammoth, now published in Cell @cellpress.bsky.social

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

If you want to know more, read the 🧵 below: