AI Article Synopsis
- Prehistoric chewed pitch from Sweden, dated around 9,890-9,540 years ago, was analyzed for ancient DNA, revealing insights into the oral microbiome of Mesolithic humans.
- The analysis showed the presence of opportunistic oral pathogens and a higher abundance of microbes related to periodontitis, suggesting poor oral health in that time period.
- Machine learning models were able to predict oral dysbiosis with a 70-80% accuracy, and additional DNA from species like red fox and red deer was also identified, providing clues about diet and material use in ancient Scandinavia.
Article Abstract
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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Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10796427 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-48762-6 | DOI Listing |
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