Searching for pathogens in a New World colonial epidemic burial

Summary

While methodological advancements in ancient DNA research have permitted the reconstruction of ancient bacterial genomes, pathogen detection has thus far been limited to capture-based approaches that carry with them a strong ascertainment bias. Such biases are reduced when historical or archaeological contexts implicate a particular disease, but examples of this are rare in the archaeological record. Ancient DNA could serve as an important tool for elucidating the biological consequences of contact between Old and New World populations, though few clues exist to identify infectious diseases thought to have contributed to high mortality in New World populations in the colonial period. Here we apply an approach for the analysis of non-enriched sequencing data that permits a fast and precise assignment of DNA reads to microbial taxa. This circumvents known biases common to capture-based screening techniques. Our experimental design will be discussed with reference to material from the project Pueblo Viejo de Teposcolula Yucundaa, which involves excavations at one of the oldest securely dated post-colonial epidemic cemeteries thus far identified in Mexico. This collection could be instrumental in our ultimate goal of understanding disease exchange in the colonial period, and subsequent genetic adaptation in New World populations.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Biological Exchange in the Anthropocene: Archaeological and Genetic Perspectives

Keywords

Spatial Coverage