Utilizing Ancient Oral Microbes to Track Human Migrations across the Pacific Islands: Insights from Palau and Beyond

Summary

This is an abstract from the "When the Wild Winds Blow: Micronesia Colonization in Pacific Context" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Ancient human migrations underpin the origin of past cultures, health, ecological interactions, and identity. However, recent or rapid migrations are difficult to track using classical demographic tools that monitor human genetic mutations over time. A new method—tracking human migrations by assessing microbial genome evolution over time within calcified dental plaque—provides a unique solution to this problem. Here, we sequenced ancient DNA preserved within calcified dental plaque from more than 150 ancient individuals spread throughout the Pacific Islands from Micronesia to Polynesia. We explore the oral microbial communities in four different Pacific Island Nations, revealing unique insights into microbiota adaptation to specific environments. We also use a phylogenomic approach to reconstruct the evolutionary history of 10 different vertically inherited oral microbes preserved across all individuals to investigate past movements throughout the Pacific. Specifically, a key oral species within the Anaerolineaceae family improves resolution provided by past human ancient DNA studies and provides exciting new insights into the settlement of the Pacific Islands, especially Palau. Overall, this study highlights how ancient human-associated microbes can offer key demographic and cultural insights, revealing this method as a minimally invasive method to identify past cultures and potentially repatriate human remains.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• When the Wild Winds Blow: Micronesia Colonization in Pacific Context   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33043