Sequencing ancient calcified dental plaque shows changes in oral microbiota with dietary shifts of the Neolithic and Industrial revolutions

By C. Adler, K. Dobney, L. Weyrich, J. Kaidonis, A. Walker, Wolfgang Haak, C. J. Bradshaw, G. Townsend, Arkadiusz Sołtysiak, K. Alt and 2 more. Nature Genetics, 2013

596 citations recorded by the source corpus.

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.

Subfields: Molecular Biology, Periodontics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4247d2236f97f690c3ab8d2c6008f1f082e1f49a

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Citations in the corpus

Endophytic bacteria in Miscanthus seed: implications for germination, vertical inheritance of endophytes, plant evolution and breeding (2017, background): “WPS-2 samples have wider origins from soil (Nogales et al., 2001) to ancient dental calculus deposits (Adler et al., 2013).”
Increasing homogeneity in global food supplies and the implications for food security (2014, background): “Such dietary changes have also contributed to reductions in diversity in human oral and gut microbiota, which in return have negatively impacted health (36, 37).”
From the field to the laboratory: Controlling DNA contamination in human ancient DNA research in the high-throughput sequencing era (2017, unknown): “…ﬁ ed dental plaque (calculus) is a complex bio ﬁ lm of oral microorganisms, which preserves human oral bacteria for ancient DNA and protein studies (Adler et al. 2013; Warinner, Rodrigues, STAR 201620548923.2016.1258824 et al. 2014; Warinner, Speller, and Collins 2014; Warin-ner, Hendy, et al.…”
Starving our Microbial Self: The Deleterious Consequences of a Diet Deficient in Microbiota-Accessible Carbohydrates (2014, unknown): “The major dietary shifts occurring between the huntergatherer lifestyle, early Neolithic farming, and more recently during the Industrial Revolution are reflected in changes in microbial membership within dental tartar of European skeletons throughout these periods (Adler et al., 2013).”
The Placenta Harbors a Unique Microbiome (2014, unknown): “The phylum-level abundance has been previously used to compare taxonomic profiles from other body site samples with low microbial abundance (32), or samples from closely approximated body sites (1).”
Oral Biofilms: Pathogens, Matrix and Polymicrobial Interactions in Microenvironments (2017, background): “Streptococcus mutans and dental caries became more prevalent after dietary shifts of the Neolithic and Industrial revolutions, which were characterized by the introduction of sugar-rich diets [10].”