Mineralized dental plaque (calculus) has proven to be an excellent source of ancient biomolecules. Here we present a genome (6.6-fold), the causative agent of leprosy, recovered via shotgun sequencing of sixteenth-century human dental calculus from an individual from Trondheim, Norway. When phylogenetically placed, this genome falls in branch 3I among the diversity of other contemporary ancient strains from Northern Europe. Moreover, ancient mycobacterial peptides were retrieved via mass spectrometry-based proteomics, further validating the presence of the pathogen. can readily be detected in the oral cavity and associated mucosal membranes, which likely contributed to it being incorporated into this individual's dental calculus. This individual showed some possible, but not definitive, evidence of skeletal lesions associated with early-stage leprosy. This study is the first known example of successful multi-omics retrieval of from archaeological dental calculus. Furthermore, we offer new insights into dental calculus as an alternative sample source to bones or teeth for detecting and molecularly characterizing in individuals from the archaeological record. This article is part of the theme issue 'Insights into health and disease from ancient biomolecules'.
BT - Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences C1 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33012227 DA - 11/2020 DO - 10.1098/rstb.2019.0584 IS - 1812 J2 - Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci LA - eng N2 -Mineralized dental plaque (calculus) has proven to be an excellent source of ancient biomolecules. Here we present a genome (6.6-fold), the causative agent of leprosy, recovered via shotgun sequencing of sixteenth-century human dental calculus from an individual from Trondheim, Norway. When phylogenetically placed, this genome falls in branch 3I among the diversity of other contemporary ancient strains from Northern Europe. Moreover, ancient mycobacterial peptides were retrieved via mass spectrometry-based proteomics, further validating the presence of the pathogen. can readily be detected in the oral cavity and associated mucosal membranes, which likely contributed to it being incorporated into this individual's dental calculus. This individual showed some possible, but not definitive, evidence of skeletal lesions associated with early-stage leprosy. This study is the first known example of successful multi-omics retrieval of from archaeological dental calculus. Furthermore, we offer new insights into dental calculus as an alternative sample source to bones or teeth for detecting and molecularly characterizing in individuals from the archaeological record. This article is part of the theme issue 'Insights into health and disease from ancient biomolecules'.
PY - 2020 EP - 20190584 T2 - Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences TI - Multi-omic detection of Mycobacterium leprae in archaeological human dental calculus. UR - https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.2019.0584 VL - 375 SN - 1471-2970 ER -