Identification and removal of contamination in palaeoproteomic analysis of dental enamel.

ABSTRACT: Analysis of archaeological and palaeontological dental enamel allows for the study of taxonomy, phylogenetic relationships, and genetic sex of Pleistocene fauna and hominin remains. However, high-quality data is required for the study of degraded, chemically modified ancient proteomes. Protein contamination may hinder acquisition of such data due to the abundance and more intact state of modern contaminating proteins, risking suppression of low-abundance, damaged peptides during fragment ion spectrum acquisition, quantitative distortions of proteome composition, and the potential of introducing taxonomic misassignments. Here, we artificially contaminate a Pleistocene woolly rhinoceros tooth in order to investigate decontamination of archaeological dental enamel. We find that although the c

SUBMITTER: Fagernas Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12804880 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature