Environmental Microbial Forensics and Archaeology of Past Pandemics

Abstract

The development of paleomicrobiology with new molecular techniques such as metagenomics is revolutionizing our knowledge of microbial evolution in human history. The study of microbial agents that are concomitantly active in the same biological environment makes it possible to obtain a picture of the complex interrelations among the different pathogens and gives us the perspective to understand the microecosystem of ancient times. This research acts as a bridge between disciplines such as archaeology, biology, and medicine, and the development of paleomicrobiology forces archaeology to broaden and update its methods. This chapter addresses the archaeological issues related to the identification of cemeteries from epidemic catastrophes (typology of burials, stratigraphy, topography, paleodemography) and the issues related to the sampling of human remains for biomolecular analysis. Developments in the field of paleomicrobiology are described with the example of the plague. Because of its powerful interdisciplinary features, the paleomicrobiological study of Yersinia pestis is an extremely interesting field, in which paleomicrobiology, historical research, and archeology are closely related, and it has important implications for the current dynamics of epidemiology.

Effects of preservation method on canine (Canis lupus familiaris) fecal microbiota

“…This is accompanied by a need for more effective storage methods that precisely and accurately capture the bacterial community at a given time-point. Additionally, studying longitudinal changes in microbiota has paved the way for developing microbiome tools to study unique signatures and providing, at least in theory, the means to locate people in space and time in forensic science ( Kim, Zorraquino & Tagkopoulous, 2015 ; Fornaciari, 2017 ). A subset of our study investigates longitudinal changes in fecal microbiota at various temperatures, which provides insight on how various bacterial signatures could be maintained or altered over time.…”

Infectious diseases and Neolithic transformations: Evaluating biological and archaeological proxies in the German loess zone between 5500 and 2500 BCE

“…those associated with the Yamnaya culture) from the steppe (Andrades Valtueña et al, 2017). In either case, evidence of massive plague pandemics, as they were, for instance, recorded for the Medieval Black Death, is still missing for the Neolithic and the Bronze Age periods (Fornaciari, 2017).…”

Peer Review #1 of "Effects of preservation method on canine (Canis lupus familiaris) fecal microbiota (v0.1)"

“…This is accompanied by a need for more effective storage methods that precisely and accurately capture the bacterial community at a given time-point. Additionally, studying longitudinal changes in microbiota has paved the way for developing microbiome tools to study unique signatures and providing, at least in theory, the means to locate people in space and time in forensic science (Kim, M, Zorraquino & Tagkopoulos, 2015;Fornaciari, 2017). A subset of our study investigates longitudinal changes in However, there is little consensus on the optimal buffer and temperature condition for bacterial preservation (Nechvatal et al, 2008;Cardona et al, 2013;Kolodziej et al, 2013;McKain et al, 2013;Fliegerova et al, 2014;Hale et al, 2015;Song et al, 2016;Hale et al, 2016;Metzler-Zebeli et al, 2016).…”