Exploring the potential of dental calculus to shed light on past human migrations in Oceania.

ABSTRACT: The Pacific islands and Island Southeast Asia have experienced multiple waves of human migrations, providing a case study for exploring the potential of ancient microbiomes to study human migration. We perform a metagenomic study of archaeological dental calculus from 102 individuals, originating from 10 Pacific islands and 1 island in Island Southeast Asia spanning ~3000 years. Oral microbiome DNA preservation in calculus is far higher than that of human DNA in archaeological bone, and comparable to that of calculus from temperate regions. Oral microbial community composition is minimally driven by time period and geography in Pacific and Island Southeast Asia calculus, but is found to be distinctive compared to calculus from Europe, Africa, and Asia. Phylogenies of individual bacterial s

SUBMITTER: Velsko IM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11586442 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature