MOLECULAR PHYLOGENY OF THE FUNGI OF THE ICEMANS GRASS CLOTHING

To investigate the origin of the fungal hyphae that cover the grass cl othing (cloak, boots) found near the neolithic mummy known as the Tyro lean Iceman, two radiocarbon-dated samples of grass were submitted to DNA extraction. The DNA was then PCR amplified using, respectively, pr imers specific for the region containing the internal transcribed spac ers and the 5.8s rDNA (ITS), and primers specific for an approximately 600-bp long fragment of the nuclear small-subunit ribosomal DNA (SSU rDNA) repeat units of eukaryotes. The amplification products were clon ed and sequenced. Sequence analysis of 20 individual ITS clones and of ten SSU rDNA clones indicated that three types of fungal DNA can be e xtracted from the grass. Phylogenetic analyses, using 5.8s and SSU rDN A fungal reference sequences from EMBL and GenBank databases, suggest that the DNAs come, respectively, from a psychrophilic basidiomycetous yeast, phylogenetically close to Leucosporidium scottii, and from two ascomycetes, one of which is possibly related to the Eurotiales