Exploring the potential of dental calculus to shed light on past human migrations in Oceania

Irina M. Velsko, Zandra Fagernäs, Monica Tromp, Stuart Bedford, Hallie R. Buckley, Geoffrey Clark, John Dudgeon, James Flexner, Jean Christophe Galipaud, Rebecca Kinaston, Cecil M. Lewis, Elizabeth Matisoo-Smith, Kathrin Nägele, Andrew T. Ozga, Cosimo Posth, Adam B. Rohrlach, Richard Shing, Truman Simanjuntak, Matthew Spriggs, Anatauarii TamariiFrédérique Valentin, Edson Willie, Christina Warinner*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The Pacific islands and Island Southeast Asia have experienced multiple waves of human migrations, providing a case study for exploring the potential of ancient microbiomes to study human migration. We perform a metagenomic study of archaeological dental calculus from 102 individuals, originating from 10 Pacific islands and 1 island in Island Southeast Asia spanning ~3000 years. Oral microbiome DNA preservation in calculus is far higher than that of human DNA in archaeological bone, and comparable to that of calculus from temperate regions. Oral microbial community composition is minimally driven by time period and geography in Pacific and Island Southeast Asia calculus, but is found to be distinctive compared to calculus from Europe, Africa, and Asia. Phylogenies of individual bacterial species in Pacific and Island Southeast Asia calculus reflect geography. Archaeological dental calculus shows good preservation in tropical regions and the potential to yield information about past human migrations, complementing studies of the human genome.

Original languageEnglish
Article number10191
JournalNature Communications
Volume15
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2024

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