Enterobius vermicularis: ancient DNA from north and south American human coprolites

Abstract

A molecular paleoparasitological diagnostic approach was developed for Enterobius vermicularis. Ancient DNA was extracted from 27 coprolites from archaeological sites in Chile and USA. Enzymatic amplification of human mtDNA sequences confirmed the human origin. We designed primers specific to the E. vermicularis 5S ribosomal RNA spacer region and they allowed reproducible polymerase chain reaction identification of ancient material. We suggested that the paleoparasitological microscopic identification could accompany molecular diagnosis, which also opens the possibility of sequence analysis to understand parasite-host evolution.

Paleoparasitologic, paleogenetic and paleobotanic analysis of XVIII century coprolites from the church La Concepción in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

“…Later, a sample from Walraversijde, Belgium (XVI century), which was used as positive control on South American paleogenetic analyses, showed a segment of cyt b gene from aDNA directly extracted from coprolites (Leles et al 2008). In this study, we confirm the ability of this methodology to recover aDNA without the prior concentration of parasite eggs (Iñiguez et al 2003, 2006, Leles et al 2008. This paleoanalysis, based on an interdisciplinary approach, is the first of its kind performed in archaeological samples from the Canary Islands.…”

“…These two laboratories are physically distant from each other. The surface of the coprolites was removed, samples were irradiated with ultraviolet light and the aDNA was extracted as described by Iñiguez et al (2003Iñiguez et al ( , 2006. The sediments of nine coprolites were submitted for molecular investigation.…”

Molecular paleoparasitological diagnosis of Ascaris sp. from coprolites: new scenery of ascariasis in pre-Colombian South America times

“…One sample was from Brazilian Northeast (Toca do Meio, National Park of Serra da Capivara, state of Piauí) and four from the state of Minas Gerais, Southeast region (one from Lapa Pequena, one from Boqueirão Soberbo and two from Gruta do Gentio II archaeological sites), and one sample was from Tulán, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile (Table). The human origin of coprolites was suggested by archaeological context and/or confirmed by the finding of E. vermicularis and T. trichiura eggs, parasites specific to humans (Confalonieri et al 1985, Confalonieri 1988, Iñiguez et al 2003b). The absence of parasite was considered after examination of forty slides for each sample at magnification of 100 X and 400 X. Precautions to prevent contamination by modern DNA and thus to obtain authentic ancient sequences were followed as described elsewhere (Drancourt & Raoult 2005).…”

Paleoparasitological report on Ascaris aDNA from an ancient East Asian sample

“…Successful recovery of ancient DNA (aDNA) from various parasite species has been reported by a number of investigators (Guhl et al 1999, Sallares & Gomzi 2001, Iñiguez et al 2003, 2006, Aufderheide et al 2004, Liu et al 2007). In the case of ancient Ascaris spp, one of the most widespread parasitic infections in humans (Loreille & Bouchet 2003), PCR-based analyses have been performed and reported by Loreille et al (2001) and Leles et al (2008).…”

“…We (Labs A and B) extracted Ascaris aDNA from samples where Ascaris eggs were identified, using the method reported by Iñiguez et al (2003). Primers for Ascaris cytochrome b (cyt b) and Ascaris 18S small subunit ribosomal RNA (18S rRNA) gene were made according to the method reported by Loreille et al (2001).…”