Ancient DNA from latrines in Northern Europe and the Middle East (500 BC–1700 AD) reveals past parasites and diet

Søe, Martin Jensen; Nejsum, Peter; Seersholm, Frederik Valeur; Fredensborg, Brian L.; Habraken, Ruben; Haase, Kirstine; Hald, Mette Marie; Simonsen, Rikke Kildevæld; Højlund, Flemming; Blanke, Louise; Merkytė, Inga; Willerslev, Eske; Kapel, Christian M. O.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0195481

Cited by 70 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Finally, genomic approaches, describing complete organelle genomes and nuclear ribosomal DNA, encompassing many potential barcoding loci, have been suggested as a more accurate and powerful alternative (Coissac et al, ). Notwithstanding, this has been applied only to study the diet of two terrestrial mammalian model species: in a methodological study focusing on the house rat Rattus rattus (Pearman et al, ) and for disclosing diets of humans (Søe et al, ).…”

Section: Different Methodologies For the Assessment Of Trophic Interamentioning

confidence: 99%

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DNA metabarcoding in diet studies: Unveiling ecological aspects in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems

2019

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Effective conservation of species and ecosystems requires the understanding of important ecological traits, such as dietary habits, food webs, and trophic niches. In diet studies, the visual identification of partially digested prey has been enhanced with the recent more powerful and accurate technique, DNA barcoding. Here, we summarize the contribution of this recent methodology to the investigation of both terrestrial and aquatic taxa diet, and compare the level of novelty uncovered through the use of this technique regarding species' ecology. From a total of 150 studies analyzed, focusing on more than 250 vertebrate wild species, seven domesticated taxa, and humans, we suggest that barcoding has led to more significant findings for aquatic taxa and ecosystems, where direct observations of feeding events and consequent trophic niche understanding are typically limited. Finally, we introduce the term dietary DNA (dDNA) to describe environmental approaches that use DNA extracted from gut, stomach, or fecal contents, aiming to assess both species dietary habits and describe local biodiversity. Particularly, we highlight the complementarity of environmental DNA (eDNA) and dDNA as a new tool for biodiversity assessments in remote areas, including most of the aquatic realm.

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Section: Different Methodologies For the Assessment Of Trophic Interamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Notwithstanding, this has been applied only to study the diet of two terrestrial mammalian model species: in a methodological study focusing on the house rat Rattus rattus (Pearman et al, 2018) and for disclosing diets of humans (Søe et al, 2018).…”

Section: Marker Choice For Metabarcoding Of Diets: Differences Betwmentioning

confidence: 99%

DNA metabarcoding in diet studies: Unveiling ecological aspects in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems

2019

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“…Using a combination of microscopy and aDNA sequencing, a recent study of domestic dog coprolites was able to establish the major diet components of ancient Polynesian dogs (Wood et al 2016). Additionally, ancient latrines have been shown to contain retrievable quantities of parasite aDNA, the host specificity of which can be used to infer the presence of domestic animal species (Søe et al 2018).…”

Section: Novel Substrates For Adnamentioning

confidence: 99%

Paleogenomics of Animal Domestication

Irving-Pease

Ryan

Jamieson

et al. 2018

Population Genomics

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Starting with dogs, over 15,000 years ago, the domestication of animals has been central in the development of modern societies. Because of its importance for a range of disciplinesincluding archaeology, biology, and the humanities-domestication has been studied extensively. This chapter reviews how the field of paleogenomics, has, and will continue to, revolutionise our understanding of animal domestication. We discuss how the recovery of ancient DNA from archaeological remains is allowing researchers to overcome inherent shortcomings arising from the analysis of modern DNA alone. In particular, we show how DNA, extracted from ancient substrates, has proven to be a crucial source of information to reconstruct the geographic and temporal origin of domestic species. We also discuss how ancient DNA is being used by geneticists and archaeologists to directly observe evolutionary changes linked to artificial and natural selection to generate a richer understanding of this fascinating process.

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“…Intestinal parasites have been found at other archaeological sites in the Middle East in the Roman, Byzantine and medieval periods in regions such as Turkey [6,7], Egypt [8][9][10], Israel [11][12][13][14], Bahrain [15], and Iran [16]. Species identified include roundworm, whipworm, Taenia sp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intestinal Parasites in an Ottoman Period Latrine from Acre (Israel) Dating to the Early 1800s CE

et al. 2019

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The aim of this study is to determine the species of parasites that affected the inhabitants of the city of Acre on the coast of the eastern Mediterranean during the Ottoman Period. This is the first archaeological study of parasites in the Ottoman Empire. We analysed sediment from a latrine dating to the early 1800s for the presence of helminth eggs and protozoan parasites which caused dysentery. The samples were examined using light microscopy and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits. We found evidence for roundworm (Ascaris lumbricoides), whipworm (Trichuris trichiura), fish tapeworm (Dibothriocephalus sp.), Taenia tapeworm (Taenia sp.), lancet liver fluke (Dicrocoelium dendriticum), and the protozoa Giardia duodenalis and Entamoeba histolytica. The parasite taxa recovered demonstrate the breadth of species present in this coastal city. We consider the effect of Ottoman Period diet, culture, trade and sanitation upon risk of parasitism in this community living 200 years ago.

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Ancient DNA from latrines in Northern Europe and the Middle East (500 BC–1700 AD) reveals past parasites and diet

Cited by 70 publications

References 46 publications

DNA metabarcoding in diet studies: Unveiling ecological aspects in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems

DNA metabarcoding in diet studies: Unveiling ecological aspects in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems

Paleogenomics of Animal Domestication

Intestinal Parasites in an Ottoman Period Latrine from Acre (Israel) Dating to the Early 1800s CE

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