DOI: 10.18710/3cvqag
title: Supporting data for: Late Quaternary dynamics of Arctic biota revealed by ancient environmental metagenomics

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[Dataset abstract] This dataset contains the assembled genome contigs (whole genome level) of the PhyloNorway plant database used in Wang et al. 2021 Late Quaternary Dynamics of Arctic Biota Revealed by Ancient Environmental Metagenomics. Methods for generating this database can be found in the paper. The 7 fasta files are the database. The PhyloNorway_com_acc2TaxaID.txt supplies a NCBI format acc2TaxaID file matching accession ID to NCBI TaxaID. Additional information about the database can be found in Alsos et al. 2020.
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[Article abstract Wang et al. submitted] 
During the last glacial-interglacial cycle, arctic biota experienced drastic climatic changes, yet the nature, extent and rate of their responses are not fully understood. Here we report the first large-scale environmental DNA metagenomic study of ancient plant and mammal communities using 535 permafrost and lake sediment samples from across the Arctic spanning the last 50,000 years. Additionally, we present 1,541 contemporary plant genome assemblies generated as reference sequences. Our study provides several novel insights into the long-term dynamics of the arctic biota at circumpolar and regional scales. Key findings include: (i) a relatively homogeneous steppe-tundra flora dominated the Arctic during the Last Glacial Maximum, followed by regional divergence of vegetation in the Holocene; (ii) certain grazing animals consistently co-occurred in space and time; (iii) humans appear to have been a minor factor in driving animal distributions; (iv) higher effective precipitation, and an increase in the proportion of wetland plants, show negative effects on animal diversity; (v) the persistence of the steppe-tundra vegetation in northern Siberia allowed the late survival of several now-extinct megafauna species, including woolly mammoth to 3.9±0.2 ka (kilo annum Before Present) and woolly rhinoceros to 9.8±0.2 ka; and (vi) phylogenetic analysis of mammoth eDNA reveals a previously unsampled mitochondrial lineage. Our findings highlight the power of ancient environmental metagenomics to advance understanding of population histories and long-term ecological dynamics.
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[Article abstract Alsos et al. 2020] 
Genome skimming has the potential for generating large data sets for DNA barcoding and wider biodiversity genomic studies, particularly via the assembly and annotation of full chloroplast (cpDNA) and nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA) sequences. We compare the success of genome skims of 2051 herbarium specimens from Norway/Polar regions with 4604 freshly collected, silica gel dried specimens mainly from the European Alps and the Carpathians. Overall, we were able to assemble the full chloroplast genome for 67% of the samples and the full nrDNA cluster for 86%. Average insert length, cover and full cpDNA and rDNA assembly were considerably higher for silica gel dried than herbarium-preserved material. However, complete plastid genomes were still assembled for 54% of herbarium samples compared to 70% of silica dried samples. Moreover, there was comparable recovery of coding genes from both tissue sources (121 for silica gel dried and 118 for herbarium material) and only minor differences in assembly success of standard barcodes between silica dried (89% ITS2, 96% matK and rbcL) and herbarium material (87% ITS2, 98% matK and rbcL). The success rate was &gt; 90% for all three markers in 1034 of 1036 genera in 160 families, and only Boraginaceae worked poorly, with 7 genera failing. Our study shows that large-scale genome skims are feasible and work well across most of the land plant families and genera we tested, independently of material type. It is therefore an efficient method for increasing the availability of plant biodiversity genomic data to support a multitude of downstream applications.
description: bowtie, 2.3.2
description: BBmap toolkit
description: AdapterRemoval, 2.3.0
description: DNA sequences of plants collected and deposited at herbarium TROM at Tromsø Museum, Norway.