Use of DNA-specific stains as indicators of nuclei and extranuclear substances in leaf cells of the Middle Eocene Metasequoia from Arctic Canada

Ozerov, Igor A.; Zhinkina, N. A.; Torshilova, A. A.; Мачс, Э. М.; Myakoshina, Yulia A.; Rodionov, A. V.

doi:10.1016/j.revpalbo.2020.104211

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 21 publications

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“…Paraffin histology applied to demineralized fossil tissues and paired with standard histochemical stains has proven useful to identify two types of bone tissues in Tyrannosaurus rex 41 , bone and cartilage in the skulls of the ornithuromorph Yanornis 15 and the dinosaur Hypacrosaurus 6 , fossilized muscle fibers and collagen fibers in an enantiornithine 20 , and here a cartilage cell nucleus in Caudipteryx. A similar method using another stain (the Feulgen stain) which binds to the sugar-phosphate backbone of the DNA molecule was successfully applied to Eocene leaf and fruit tissues and clearly stained the nuclei in red 42,43 . More recently, some exquisitely preserved plant anaphasic chromosomes from the Oligocene were stained using this same histochemical method and the staining was clearly located within the chromosomes only (not within the cytoplasm nor the cell membrane), demonstrating that the staining was specific and that the method worked 7 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nuclear preservation in the cartilage of the Jehol dinosaur Caudipteryx

Zheng

Bailleul

et al. 2021

Commun Biol

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Previous findings on dinosaur cartilage material from the Late Cretaceous of Montana suggested that cartilage is a vertebrate tissue with unique characteristics that favor nuclear preservation. Here, we analyze additional dinosaur cartilage in Caudipteryx (STM4-3) from the Early Cretaceous Jehol biota of Northeast China. The cartilage fragment is highly diagenetically altered when observed in ground-sections but shows exquisite preservation after demineralization. It reveals transparent, alumino-silicified chondrocytes and brown, ironized chondrocytes. The histochemical stain Hematoxylin and Eosin (that stains the nucleus and cytoplasm in extant cells) was applied to both the demineralized cartilage of Caudipteryx and that of a chicken. The two specimens reacted identically, and one dinosaur chondrocyte revealed a nucleus with fossilized threads of chromatin. This is the second example of fossilized chromatin threads in a vertebrate material. These data show that some of the original nuclear biochemistry is preserved in this dinosaur cartilage material and further support the hypothesis that cartilage is very prone to nuclear fossilization and a perfect candidate to further understand DNA preservation in deep time.

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