Ancient Human Genomes and Environmental DNA from the Cement Attaching 2,000-Year-Old Head Lice Nits.

ABSTRACT: Over the past few decades, there has been a growing demand for genome analysis of ancient human remains. Destructive sampling is increasingly difficult to obtain for ethical reasons, and standard methods of breaking the skull to access the petrous bone or sampling remaining teeth are often forbidden for curatorial reasons. However, most ancient humans carried head lice and their eggs abound in historical hair specimens. Here we show that host DNA is protected by the cement that glues head lice nits to the hair of ancient Argentinian mummies, 1,500-2,000 years old. The genetic affinities deciphered from genome-wide analyses of this DNA inform that this population migrated from north-west Amazonia to the Andes of central-west Argentina; a result confirmed using the mitochondria of the host l

SUBMITTER: Pedersen MW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8829908 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature