Metagenomic analysis of ancient dental calculus reveals unexplored diversity of oral archaeal Methanobrevibacter.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Dental calculus (mineralised dental plaque) preserves many types of microfossils and biomolecules, including microbial and host DNA, and ancient calculus are thus an important source of information regarding our ancestral human oral microbiome. In this study, we taxonomically characterised the dental calculus microbiome from 20 ancient human skeletal remains originating from Trentino-South Tyrol, Italy, dating from the Neolithic (6000-3500 BCE) to the Early Middle Ages (400-1000 CE).

Results

We found a high abundance of the archaeal genus Methanobrevibacter in the calculus. However, only a fraction of the sequences showed high similarity to Methanobrevibacter oralis, the only described Methanobrevibacter species in the human oral microbiome so far. To further inve

SUBMITTER: Granehall L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8485483 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature