Oral Metagenomes from Native American Ancestors Reveal Distinct Microbial Lineages in the Precontact Era

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Disruption of the microbial community in the oral cavity, by diet, host genetics, or environmental factors, can lead to dysbiosis, promoting preferential growth of pathogenic microorganisms leading to a diseased state. The calcified matrix of dental calculus is a good source for ancient biomolecules belonging to bacterial species, allowing researchers to look at how pathogens and other bacteria have evolved through time. In collaboration with the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, a federally recognized tribe in Oklahoma, USA, precontact agricultural Wichita ancestors from approximately 1250 to 1450 CE were paleopathologically assessed for dental disease and DNA was extracted from dental calculus. Double-stranded DNA libraries were uracil deglycosylase-treated and shotgun-sequenced with Illumina technology. DNA preservation was assessed, microbial composition was taxonomically profiled, and strain diversity was phylogenetically analyzed. Ancient oral microbial profiles were identified from 26 Wichita ancestors and several displayed relatively high amounts of bacteria affiliated with periodontitis. Geographic structuring was observed in the phylogenetic analysis of these bacteria and microbial profiles of the Wichita ancestors clustered with those of other precontact Native American individuals. Presented is the largest oral metagenome dataset from an ancestral Native American population and informs on oral bacterial ecology prior to colonial influence and industrialization.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37267.0