title: Sequencing ancient calcified dental plaque shows changes in oral microbiota with dietary shifts of the Neolithic and Industrial revolutions.
abstract: The importance of commensal microbes for human health is increasingly recognized, yet the impacts of evolutionary changes in human diet and culture on commensal microbiota remain almost unknown. Two of the greatest dietary shifts in human evolution involved the adoption of carbohydrate-rich Neolithic (farming) diets (beginning ∼10,000 years before the present) and the more recent advent of industrially processed flour and sugar (in ∼1850). Here, we show that calcified dental plaque (dental calculus) on ancient teeth preserves a detailed genetic record throughout this period. Data from 34 early European skeletons indicate that the transition from hunter-gatherer to farming shifted the oral microbial community to a disease-associated configuration. The composition of oral microbiota remained unexpectedly constant between Neolithic and medieval times, after which (the now ubiquitous) cariogenic bacteria became dominant, apparently during the Industrial Revolution. Modern oral microbiotic ecosystems are markedly less diverse than historic populations, which might be contributing to chronic oral (and other) disease in postindustrial lifestyles.
authors: Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
authors: Christina J
authors: CJ
authors: Adler
authors: Keith
authors: K
authors: Dobney
authors: Laura S
authors: LS
authors: Weyrich
authors: John
authors: J
authors: Kaidonis
authors: Alan W
authors: AW
authors: Walker
authors: Wolfgang
authors: W
authors: Haak
authors: Corey J A
authors: CJ
authors: Bradshaw
authors: Grant
authors: G
authors: Townsend
authors: Arkadiusz
authors: A
authors: Sołtysiak
authors: Kurt W
authors: KW
authors: Alt
authors: Julian
authors: J
authors: Parkhill
authors: Alan
authors: A
authors: Cooper
mesh_terms: D001106:Archaeology; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003773:Dental Plaque / Q000235:genetics* / Q000382:microbiology; D004032:Diet; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry; D054892:Metagenome / Q000235:genetics*; D009061:Mouth Mucosa / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000473:pathology