title: A molecular portrait of maternal sepsis from Byzantine Troy.
abstract: Pregnancy complications are poorly represented in the archeological record, despite their importance in contemporary and ancient societies. While excavating a Byzantine cemetery in Troy, we discovered calcified abscesses among a woman's remains. Scanning electron microscopy of the tissue revealed 'ghost cells', resulting from dystrophic calcification, which preserved ancient maternal, fetal and bacterial DNA of a severe infection, likely chorioamnionitis.Gardnerella vaginalisandStaphylococcus saprophyticusdominated the abscesses. Phylogenomic analyses of ancient, historical, and contemporary data showed thatG. vaginalisTroy fell within contemporary genetic diversity, whereasS. saprophyticusTroy belongs to a lineage that does not appear to be commonly associated with human disease today. We speculate that the ecology ofS. saprophyticusinfection may have differed in the ancient world as a result of close contacts between humans and domesticated animals. These results highlight the complex and dynamic interactions with our microbial milieu that underlie severe maternal infections.
authors.affiliation: McMaster Ancient DNA Centre, Department of Anthropology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.|MYcroarray, Ann Arbor, United States.
authors.forename: Alison M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Devault
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, United States.|Microbiology Doctoral Training Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, United States.
authors.forename: Tatum D
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6255-690X
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Mortimer
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kitchen
authors.affiliation: Project Troia, Institute of Prehistory, Early History, and Medieval Archaeology, Tübingen University, Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Henrike
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kiesewetter
authors.affiliation: McMaster Ancient DNA Centre, Department of Anthropology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.|MYcroarray, Ann Arbor, United States.
authors.forename: Jacob M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Enk
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
authors.forename: G Brian
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Golding
authors.affiliation: Keck Carbon Cycle Accelerator Mass Spectrometer, Earth Systems Science Department, University of California, Irvine, United States.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Southon
authors.affiliation: McMaster Ancient DNA Centre, Department of Anthropology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kuch
authors.affiliation: McMaster Ancient DNA Centre, Department of Anthropology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
authors.forename: Ana T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Duggan
authors.affiliation: Molecular Archaeology Laboratory, Biotechnology Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, United States.|Department of Classics and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, United States.
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Aylward
authors.affiliation: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, United States.
authors.forename: Shea N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Gardner
authors.affiliation: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, United States.
authors.forename: Jonathan E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.affiliation: Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
authors.forename: Andrew M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: King
authors.affiliation: Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
authors.forename: Gerard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Bacterial Genomics, Pathogen Genomics Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kuroda
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Bacterial Genomics, Pathogen Genomics Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Kengo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, United States.
authors.forename: Derek Eg
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Briggs
authors.affiliation: Division of Paleopathology, Department of Translational Research on New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Gino
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fornaciari
authors.affiliation: Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, Charles Perkins Centre, School of Life and Environmental Sciences and Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Edward C
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-9596-3552
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Holmes
authors.affiliation: McMaster Ancient DNA Centre, Department of Anthropology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.|Department of Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.|Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.|Humans and the Microbiome Program, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Hendrik N
authors.initials: HN
authors.lastname: Poinar
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, United States.|Molecular Archaeology Laboratory, Biotechnology Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, United States.|Department of Medicine (Infectious Diseases), School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, United States.
authors.forename: Caitlin S
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6324-1333
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Pepperell
mesh_terms: D000038:Abscess / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005260:Female; D005580:Fossils; D006194:Gardnerella vaginalis / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D016908:Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / Q000473:pathology*; D057790:Staphylococcus saprophyticus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial
keywords: Ancient DNA; Gardnerella vaginalis; Staphylococcus saprophyticus; chorioamnionitis; evolution; evolutionary biology; genomics; human; infectious disease; microbiology