Metagenomic analysis of Mesolithic chewed pitch reveals poor oral health among stone age individuals
Creators
- 1. Mersin Univ, Fac Sci, Dept Biotechnol, TR-33100 Mersin, Turkiye
- 2. Uppsala Univ, Dept Archaeol & Ancient Hist, Engelska Parken, Thunbergsvagen 3H Box 626, S-75126 Uppsala, Sweden
- 3. Univ Oslo, Museum Cultural Hist, POB 6762,St Olavs Plass, NO-0130 Oslo, Norway
- 4. Fdn War Booty Site Finnestorp, Klarinettvagen 75, S-43475 Kungsbacka, Sweden
- 5. Stockholm Univ, Dept Archaeol & Class Studies, Osteoarchaeol Res Lab, Stockholm, Sweden
- 6. Uppsala Univ, Dept Organismal Biol Human Evolut, Evolutionsbiologiskt Ctr EBC Norbyvagen 18, Uppsala, Sweden
- 7. Linnaeus Univ, Fac Hlth & Life Sci, Dept Chem & Biomed Sci, Hus Vita, S-44018 Kalmar, Sweden
- 8. Dept Cell & Mol Biol CMB, Karolinska Insitutet, POB 285, S-17177 Stockholm, Sweden
- 9. Istanbul Univ, Fac Sci, Dept Mol Biol & Genet, TR-34134 Istanbul, Turkiye
Description
Prehistoric chewed pitch has proven to be a useful source of ancient DNA, both from humans and their microbiomes. Here we present the metagenomic analysis of three pieces of chewed pitch from Huseby Klev, Sweden, that were dated to 9,890-9,540 before present. The metagenomic profile exposes a Mesolithic oral microbiome that includes opportunistic oral pathogens. We compared the data with healthy and dysbiotic microbiome datasets and we identified increased abundance of periodontitis-associated microbes. In addition, trained machine learning models predicted dysbiosis with 70-80% probability. Moreover, we identified DNA sequences from eukaryotic species such as red fox, hazelnut, red deer and apple. Our results indicate a case of poor oral health during the Scandinavian Mesolithic, and show that pitch pieces have the potential to provide information on material use, diet and oral health.
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