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Leonardo da Vinci is famous for his elaborate and nuanced works of art and his advanced technological ideas. But new research has revealed another level of complexity to his drawings: a hidden world of tiny life forms in his works.
The findings, the researchers said, could help build a microbiome “catalog” for works of art. Each of the pieces contained a collection of microbes unique enough that the researchers would later have identified it again only from a study of its microscopic biology.
And the microbiomes in the designs had enough key things in common to help researchers spot counterfeits based on differences in their microbiomes, or even authentic designs that had been stored under different conditions over the centuries.
The researchers also showed that da Vinci’s drawings had a significantly different microbiome than expected, with lots of bacteria and human DNA – likely a result of centuries of manipulation by art conservators and other people.
Microbes known to degrade paper over time were also present, showing why the efforts of these conservators were necessary.
The study boils down to a proof-of-concept exercise, showing how microbiomes might, in the future, reveal unexpected stories of certain works of art or help detect counterfeits.
Researchers examined microscopic biological material, living and dead, in seven of the master’s “iconic” drawings, and found an unexpected diversity of bacteria, fungi and human DNA.
Most of this material likely landed on the sketches long after da Vinci died 501 years ago, so the DNA (or most of it at least) is likely from other people who manipulated the drawings over the years. centuries and not of the polymath himself. But new biological materials have a story to tell.
The biggest surprise, the researchers wrote, was the high concentration of bacteria in the designs, especially compared to fungi.
Previous studies have shown that fungi tend to dominate the microbiomes of paper objects such as these drawings, but, in this case, an unusually high amount of human bacteria and insects (probably flies that pooped on the paper at one point) were present.
“Overall, the insects, restaurateurs and geographic location all seem to have left an invisible trail on the drawings,” the researchers said in a statement.
“[But] it is difficult to say if any of these contaminants come from the time when Leonardo da Vinci sketched the drawings. “
Most of this DNA probably comes from people who restored the work from the 15th century onwards. The team did not analyze the genetic material in the level of detail necessary to see precisely who it might have come from.
Researchers used a new tool called Nanopore, a genetic sequencing method that quickly breaks down and analyzes genetic material, to perform a detailed study of different biological materials.
The same researchers have studied artistic microbiomes in the past to determine how statues recovered from smugglers were stored while they were in hiding. In the future, they say, this technique could reveal new details about the history of even well-studied works of art.
The study was published on November 20 in the journal Frontiers in microbiology.
This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here.
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