showing 3 related works from this author
Pathogens and host immunity in the ancient human oral cavity.
2014
Calcified dental plaque (dental calculus) preserves for millennia and entraps biomolecules from all domains of life and viruses. We report the first high-resolution taxonomic and protein functional characterization of the ancient oral microbiome and demonstrate that the oral cavity has long served as a reservoir for bacteria implicated in both local and systemic disease. We characterize: (i) the ancient oral microbiome in a diseased state, (ii) 40 opportunistic pathogens, (iii) the first evidence of ancient human-associated putative antibiotic resistance genes, (iv) a genome reconstruction of the periodontal pathogen Tannerella forsythia, (v) 239 bacterial and 43 human proteins, allowing co…
Biomolecular study of the human remains from tomb 5859 in the Etruscan necropolis of Monterozzi Tarquinia (Vitarbo, Italy)
2004
Abstract Archaeological excavation in an Etruscan room tomb, from the Monterozzi necropolis in Tarquinia led to the recovery of four individuals. It was hypothesized that they could be members of a single family group. As both archaeological data and classical anthropological analysis provided little information in this direction, ancient DNA (aDNA) was extracted from bone and tooth fragments of the individuals. For each subject HVR-I of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was cloned and sequenced. To identify the sex of the individuals, amelogenine and SRY genes were analysed. Short tandem repeat (STR) characterization was also performed. DNA studies were preceded by the evaluation of amino acid…
Ancient proteins resolve the evolutionary history of Darwin's South American ungulates.
2015
No large group of recently extinct placental mammals remains as evolutionarily cryptic as the approximately 280 genera grouped as 'South American native ungulates'. To Charles Darwin, who first collected their remains, they included perhaps the 'strangest animal[s] ever discovered'. Today, much like 180 years ago, it is no clearer whether they had one origin or several, arose before or after the Cretaceous/Palaeogene transition 66.2 million years ago, or are more likely to belong with the elephants and sirenians of superorder Afrotheria than with the euungulates (cattle, horses, and allies) of superorder Laurasiatheria. Morphology-based analyses have proved unconvincing because convergences…