0000000000217310
AUTHOR
Janis Kimsis
showing 4 related works from this author
The Postmedieval Latvian Oral Microbiome in the Context of Modern Dental Calculus and Modern Dental Plaque Microbial Profiles
2021
Recent advantages in paleomicrobiology have provided an opportunity to investigate the composition of ancient microbial ecologies. Here, using metagenome analysis, we investigated the microbial profiles of historic dental calculus retrieved from archaeological human remains from postmedieval Latvia dated 16–17th century AD and examined the associations of oral taxa and microbial diversity with specific characteristics. We evaluated the preservation of human oral microbiome patterns in historic samples and compared the microbial composition of historic dental calculus, modern human dental plaque, modern human dental calculus samples and burial soil microbiota. Overall, the results showed tha…
Comparison of telomere length between population-specific mitochondrial haplogroups among different age groups in a Latvian population
2014
Population studies have demonstrated that telomere length (TL) displays great diversity among different populations. Previously described controversial findings associated longevity with specific mitochondrial DNA haplogroups (hgs) (e.g., J and U). These observations may be influenced by population diversity, geographic location, and/or specific historic background. The aims of this study were to identify a specific hg which correlates with aging in a Latvian populating and to evaluate the possible association of TL variability with specific mitochondrial hgs. The results show no significant correlation between TL, mitochondrial DNA hgs and longevity. A slight increase in frequency was obse…
Insights into archaeological human sample microbiome using 16S rRNA gene sequencing
2017
Human body is inhabited by a vast number of microorganisms, collectively known as human microbiome, and there is a tremendous interest in evolutionary changes of human microbial ecology, diversity and function. The field of paleomicrobiology – study of ancient human microbiome – is powered by modern techniques of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), which allows extracting microbial genomic data directly from archaeological sample of interest. One of the major techniques is 16S rRNA gene sequencing, by which certain 16S rRNA gene hypervariable regions are being amplified and sequenced. However, some limitations of this method exist including taxonomic precision and efficacy of different region…
Analysis of the bacterial communities in ancient human bones and burial soil samples: Tracing the impact of environmental bacteria
2019
Abstract In our attempts to reveal the hidden fragments of the history of the natural world, ancient DNA (aDNA) is the precious missing key that allows us to discover hidden truths about ourselves and the world around us. Not only does aDNA encrypt genetic data from a particular individual, it also carries information about the microbial communities that were present in the individual. However, the process of such data mining has many intrinsic challenges. One of the main challenges in aDNA research is the contamination of archaeological material with environmental bacteria from the surrounding soil and postmortem microbial sources. The goal of this study was to identify the microbial commu…