Combined methodologies for gaining much information from ancient dental calculus: testing experimental strategies for si
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(2020) 12:10
ORIGINAL PAPER
Combined methodologies for gaining much information from ancient dental calculus: testing experimental strategies for simultaneously analysing DNA and food residues Alessandra Modi 1 & Lisa Pisaneschi 2 & Valentina Zaro 1 & Stefania Vai 1 & Chiara Vergata 1 & Enrico Casalone 3 & David Caramelli 1 & Jacopo Moggi-Cecchi 1 & Marta Mariotti Lippi 2 & Martina Lari 1 Received: 11 March 2019 / Accepted: 29 October 2019 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Dental calculus from archaeological samples is a rich source of ancient biomolecules, such as DNA, proteins, and microremains, mainly related to food. Focusing on different contents, laboratory procedures require specific treatments that necessitate the same material and are generally mutually exclusive; therefore, the low quantity of the starting material is often the main limiting factor for gathering data. Here, we compare different combinations of laboratory procedures in order to identify the best strategy for simultaneously extracting DNA and isolating plant residue. Preliminary tests were performed on fresh plant materials to verify the effects of the DNA extraction protocols on starch grains and phytoliths. Different combined experimental procedures were successively applied to the dental calculus of three medieval individuals. Our results confirmed that authentic genetic data could be recovered from ancient dental calculus using protocols commonly used for extracting DNA from ancient bones and teeth, and the residual pellet could be successfully used for morphological characterization of plant residues. In addition, we confirmed that, although most DNA within calculus is microbial, the whole human mitochondrial genome could be reconstructed using target enrichment techniques. Keywords Starch grains . Phytoliths . Microbiome . Mitochondrial DNA . Medieval burial
Introduction Over the past two decades, dental calculus has become the subject of an increasing number of investigations that concern
Marta Mariotti Lippi and Martina Lari contributed equally to this work. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00983-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Alessandra Modi [email protected] * Martina Lari [email protected] 1
Department of Biology, University of Florence, Via del Proconsolo 12, Florence, Italy
2
Department of Biology, University of Florence, Via La Pira 4, Florence, Italy
3
Department of Biology, University of Florence, Via Madonna del Piano 6, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy
different research fields in biology. This growing interest is due to its chemical nature and way of forming (Warinner et al. 2015), which make tartar a mineralized archive of multisource residues deriving from the oral cavity, including mucosa cells, components of the bacterial flora, and minute fragments of various materials that entered the mouth. Indeed, acting as a trap for numerous debris fragments, dent
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