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Molecular Identification of Bacteria by Total Sequence Screening: Determining the Cause of Death in Ancient Human Subjects
- Source :
- PLoS ONE, PLoS ONE, Public Library of Science, 2011, 6 (7), pp.e21733. ⟨10.1371/journal.pone.0021733⟩, PLoS ONE, Vol 6, Iss 7, p e21733 (2011)
- Publication Year :
- 2011
- Publisher :
- HAL CCSD, 2011.
-
Abstract
- International audience; Research of ancient pathogens in ancient human skeletons has been mainly carried out on the basis of one essential historical or archaeological observation, permitting specific pathogens to be targeted. Detection of ancient human pathogens without such evidence is more difficult, since the quantity and quality of ancient DNA, as well as the environmental bacteria potentially present in the sample, limit the analyses possible. Using human lung tissue and/or teeth samples from burials in eastern Siberia, dating from the end of 17(th) to the 19(th) century, we propose a methodology that includes the: 1) amplification of all 16S rDNA gene sequences present in each sample; 2) identification of all bacterial DNA sequences with a degree of identity ≥ 95%, according to quality criteria; 3) identification and confirmation of bacterial pathogens by the amplification of the rpoB gene; and 4) establishment of authenticity criteria for ancient DNA. This study demonstrates that from teeth samples originating from ancient human subjects, we can realise: 1) the correct identification of bacterial molecular sequence signatures by quality criteria; 2) the separation of environmental and pathogenic bacterial 16S rDNA sequences; 3) the distribution of bacterial species for each subject and for each burial; and 4) the characterisation of bacteria specific to the permafrost. Moreover, we identified three pathogens in different teeth samples by 16S rDNA sequence amplification: Bordetella sp., Streptococcus pneumoniae and Shigella dysenteriae. We tested for the presence of these pathogens by amplifying the rpoB gene. For the first time, we confirmed sequences from Bordetella pertussis in the lungs of an ancient male Siberian subject, whose grave dated from the end of the 17(th) century to the early 18(th) century.
- Subjects :
- Male
Bacterial Diseases
[SHS.ANTHRO-BIO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Biological anthropology
History, 18th Century
law.invention
law
Cause of Death
Freezing
Environmental Microbiology
Phylogeny
Polymerase chain reaction
Genetics
0303 health sciences
Multidisciplinary
GE
Fossils
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
History, 19th Century
Bacterial Typing Techniques
Bacterial Pathogens
Bordetella
Infectious Diseases
[SDE]Environmental Sciences
RA1001
Medicine
Research Article
DNA, Bacterial
Sequence analysis
Science
Biology
DNA, Ribosomal
Microbiology
Bone and Bones
Bacterial genetics
History, 17th Century
Molecular Genetics
03 medical and health sciences
Pertussis
Phylogenetics
Humans
Gene
030304 developmental biology
QL
Bacteria
Base Sequence
030306 microbiology
Reproducibility of Results
Paleontology
DNA
Sequence Analysis, DNA
rpoB
biology.organism_classification
Molecular Typing
Siberia
Ancient DNA
Paleobiology
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 19326203
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- PLoS ONE, PLoS ONE, Public Library of Science, 2011, 6 (7), pp.e21733. ⟨10.1371/journal.pone.0021733⟩, PLoS ONE, Vol 6, Iss 7, p e21733 (2011)
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....9fe70ca96cf06e221110c9ffec494e0f