Ancient dental calculus reveals oral microbiome shifts associated with lifestyle and disease in Great Britain.

ABSTRACT: The prevalence of chronic, non-communicable diseases has risen sharply in recent decades, especially in industrialized countries. While several studies implicate the microbiome in this trend, few have examined the evolutionary history of industrialized microbiomes. Here we sampled 235 ancient dental calculus samples from individuals living in Great Britain (∼2200 BCE to 1853 CE), including 127 well-contextualized London adults. We reconstructed their microbial history spanning the transition to industrialization. After controlling for oral geography and technical biases, we identified multiple oral microbial communities that coexisted in Britain for millennia, including a community associated with Methanobrevibacter, an anaerobic Archaea not commonly prevalent in the oral microbiome of mod

SUBMITTER: Gancz AS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11323141 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature