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Grasso G, Bianciotto V, Marmeisse R. Paleomicrobiology: Tracking the past microbial life from single species to entire microbial communities. Microb Biotechnol 2024; 17:e14390. [PMID: 38227345 PMCID: PMC10832523 DOI: 10.1111/1751-7915.14390] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2023] [Revised: 11/04/2023] [Accepted: 12/10/2023] [Indexed: 01/17/2024] Open
Abstract
By deciphering information encoded in degraded ancient DNA extracted from up to million-years-old samples, molecular paleomicrobiology enables to objectively retrace the temporal evolution of microbial species and communities. Assembly of full-length genomes of ancient pathogen lineages allows not only to follow historical epidemics in space and time but also to identify the acquisition of genetic features that represent landmarks in the evolution of the host-microbe interaction. Analysis of microbial community DNA extracted from essentially human paleo-artefacts (paleofeces, dental calculi) evaluates the relative contribution of diet, lifestyle and geography on the taxonomic and functional diversity of these guilds in which have been identified species that may have gone extinct in today's human microbiome. As for non-host-associated environmental samples, such as stratified sediment cores, analysis of their DNA illustrates how and at which pace microbial communities are affected by local or widespread environmental disturbance. Description of pre-disturbance microbial diversity patterns can aid in evaluating the relevance and effectiveness of remediation policies. We finally discuss how recent achievements in paleomicrobiology could contribute to microbial biotechnology in the fields of medical microbiology and food science to trace the domestication of microorganisms used in food processing or to illustrate the historic evolution of food processing microbial consortia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gianluca Grasso
- Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e Biologia dei SistemiUniversità degli Studi of TurinTurinItaly
- Institut Systématique Evolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB: UMR7205 CNRS‐MNHN‐Sorbonne Université‐EPHE‐UA)¸ Muséum National d'Histoire NaturelleParisFrance
- Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection (IPSP), SSNational Research Council (CNR)TurinItaly
| | - Valeria Bianciotto
- Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection (IPSP), SSNational Research Council (CNR)TurinItaly
| | - Roland Marmeisse
- Institut Systématique Evolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB: UMR7205 CNRS‐MNHN‐Sorbonne Université‐EPHE‐UA)¸ Muséum National d'Histoire NaturelleParisFrance
- Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection (IPSP), SSNational Research Council (CNR)TurinItaly
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Gancz AS, Farrer AG, Nixon MP, Wright S, Arriola L, Adler C, Davenport ER, Gully N, Cooper A, Britton K, Dobney K, Silverman JD, Weyrich LS. Ancient dental calculus reveals oral microbiome shifts associated with lifestyle and disease in Great Britain. Nat Microbiol 2023; 8:2315-2325. [PMID: 38030898 DOI: 10.1038/s41564-023-01527-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2022] [Accepted: 10/16/2023] [Indexed: 12/01/2023]
Abstract
The prevalence of chronic, non-communicable diseases has risen sharply in recent decades, especially in industrialized countries. While several studies implicate the microbiome in this trend, few have examined the evolutionary history of industrialized microbiomes. Here we sampled 235 ancient dental calculus samples from individuals living in Great Britain (∼2200 BCE to 1853 CE), including 127 well-contextualized London adults. We reconstructed their microbial history spanning the transition to industrialization. After controlling for oral geography and technical biases, we identified multiple oral microbial communities that coexisted in Britain for millennia, including a community associated with Methanobrevibacter, an anaerobic Archaea not commonly prevalent in the oral microbiome of modern industrialized societies. Calculus analysis suggests that oral hygiene contributed to oral microbiome composition, while microbial functions reflected past differences in diet, specifically in dairy and carbohydrate consumption. In London samples, Methanobrevibacter-associated microbial communities are linked with skeletal markers of systemic diseases (for example, periostitis and joint pathologies), and their disappearance is consistent with temporal shifts, including the arrival of the Second Plague Pandemic. This suggests pre-industrialized microbiomes were more diverse than previously recognized, enhancing our understanding of chronic, non-communicable disease origins in industrialized populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Abigail S Gancz
- Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA
| | - Andrew G Farrer
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Michelle P Nixon
- College of Information Sciences and Technology, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA
| | - Sterling Wright
- Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA
| | - Luis Arriola
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Christina Adler
- School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Emily R Davenport
- Department of Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA
- Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA
- Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA
| | - Neville Gully
- School of Dentistry, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Alan Cooper
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
- Gulbali Institute, Charles Sturt University, Albury, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Kate Britton
- Department of Archaeology, School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
| | - Keith Dobney
- Department of Archaeology, School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
- Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, School of Histories, Languages and Cultures, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
- Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Environment, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Justin D Silverman
- College of Information Sciences and Technology, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA
- Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA
- Department of Statistics, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA
- Department of Medicine, The Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA, USA
| | - Laura S Weyrich
- Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA.
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
- Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA.
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Moraitou M, Forsythe A, Fellows Yates JA, Brealey JC, Warinner C, Guschanski K. Ecology, Not Host Phylogeny, Shapes the Oral Microbiome in Closely Related Species. Mol Biol Evol 2022; 39:6874787. [PMID: 36472532 PMCID: PMC9778846 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msac263] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2021] [Revised: 11/25/2022] [Accepted: 12/01/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Host-associated microbiomes are essential for a multitude of biological processes. Placed at the contact zone between external and internal environments, the little-studied oral microbiome has important roles in host physiology and health. Here, we investigate the roles of host evolutionary relationships and ecology in shaping the oral microbiome in three closely related gorilla subspecies (mountain, Grauer's, and western lowland gorillas) using shotgun metagenomics of 46 museum-preserved dental calculus samples. We find that the oral microbiomes of mountain gorillas are functionally and taxonomically distinct from the other two subspecies, despite close evolutionary relationships and geographic proximity with Grauer's gorillas. Grauer's gorillas show intermediate bacterial taxonomic and functional, and dietary profiles. Altitudinal differences in gorilla subspecies ranges appear to explain these patterns, suggesting a close connection between dental calculus microbiomes and the environment, likely mediated through diet. This is further supported by the presence of gorilla subspecies-specific phyllosphere/rhizosphere taxa in the oral microbiome. Mountain gorillas show a high abundance of nitrate-reducing oral taxa, which may promote adaptation to a high-altitude lifestyle by modulating blood pressure. Our results suggest that ecology, rather than evolutionary relationships and geographic distribution, shape the oral microbiome in these closely related species.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - James A Fellows Yates
- Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany,Department of Paleobiotechnology, Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology Hans Knöll Institute, 07745 Jena, Germany
| | - Jaelle C Brealey
- Department of Natural History, NTNU University Museum, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway
| | - Christina Warinner
- Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany,Department of Paleobiotechnology, Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology Hans Knöll Institute, 07745 Jena, Germany,Faculty of Biological Sciences, Friedrich Schiller University, 07743 Jena, Germany,Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
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