论文标题：A 5700 year-old human genome and oral microbiome from chewed birch pitch

期刊：Nature Communications

作者：Theis Z. T. Jensen, Jonas Niemann et.al

发表时间：2019/12/17

数字识别码：10.1038/s41467-019-13549-9

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《自然-通讯》本周发表的一项研究A 5700 year-old human genome and oral microbiome from chewed birch pitch从一个被咀嚼过的桦树沥青样本中得到了一名5700年前丹麦人的全部基因组。对桦树沥青中含有的植物、动物和微生物DNA进行分析还揭示了这位个体的口腔微生物组和可能的饮食来源。

Lola的艺术复原图

图片来源：Tom Bjo?rklund

桦树沥清由桦树皮加热后产生，自中更新世（约76万-12.6万年前）开始一直被用作胶粘剂。考古遗址中曾发现过小块的桦树沥清，上面通常含有牙印，显示出这些物质曾被咀嚼过。

来自丹麦萨尔特岛的白桦沥青。

图片来源：Theis Jensen

丹麦哥本哈根大学的Hannes Schroeder和同事对桦树沥清样本中的人类DNA进行测序，确定这名个体为女性；根据多个基因的遗传变异发现，她可能有着深色的头发、黝黑的肌肤、蓝色的眼睛。作者认为，相较于斯堪的那维亚中部的狩猎采集者，她与欧洲大陆的西方狩猎采集者的亲缘关系更为接近。研究人员还对桦树沥清中发现的非人类古代DNA进行了分析，检测到了具有口腔微生物特征的细菌物种，包括一些已知的病原菌，如与牙周病有关的牙龈卟啉单胞菌（Porphyromonas gingivalis）。此外，测得的DNA序列还能对应一些植物和动物，如榛子和野鸭，作者认为这可能是之前一餐的残留。

摘要：The rise of ancient genomics has revolutionised our understanding of human prehistory but this work depends on the availability of suitable samples. Here we present a complete ancient human genome and oral microbiome sequenced from a 5700 year-old piece of chewed birch pitch from Denmark. We sequence the human genome to an average depth of 2.3× and find that the individual who chewed the pitch was female and that she was genetically more closely related to western hunter-gatherers from mainland Europe than hunter-gatherers from central Scandinavia. We also find that she likely had dark skin, dark brown hair and blue eyes. In addition, we identify DNA fragments from several bacterial and viral taxa, including Epstein-Barr virus, as well as animal and plant DNA, which may have derived from a recent meal. The results highlight the potential of chewed birch pitch as a source of ancient DNA.

（来源：科学网）