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Identification of microbial pathogens in Neolithic Scandinavian humans

Bergfeldt, Nora ; Kırdök, Emrah ; Oskolkov, Nikolay LU ; Mirabello, Claudio ; Unneberg, Per ; Malmström, Helena ; Fraser, Magdalena ; Sanchez-Quinto, Federico ; Jorgensen, Roger and Skar, Birgitte , et al. (2024) In Scientific Reports 14.
Abstract

With the Neolithic transition, human lifestyle shifted from hunting and gathering to farming. This change altered subsistence patterns, cultural expression, and population structures as shown by the archaeological/zooarchaeological record, as well as by stable isotope and ancient DNA data. Here, we used metagenomic data to analyse if the transitions also impacted the microbiome composition in 25 Mesolithic and Neolithic hunter-gatherers and 13 Neolithic farmers from several Scandinavian Stone Age cultural contexts. Salmonella enterica, a bacterium that may have been the cause of death for the infected individuals, was found in two Neolithic samples from Battle Axe culture contexts. Several species of the bacterial genus Yersinia were... (More)

With the Neolithic transition, human lifestyle shifted from hunting and gathering to farming. This change altered subsistence patterns, cultural expression, and population structures as shown by the archaeological/zooarchaeological record, as well as by stable isotope and ancient DNA data. Here, we used metagenomic data to analyse if the transitions also impacted the microbiome composition in 25 Mesolithic and Neolithic hunter-gatherers and 13 Neolithic farmers from several Scandinavian Stone Age cultural contexts. Salmonella enterica, a bacterium that may have been the cause of death for the infected individuals, was found in two Neolithic samples from Battle Axe culture contexts. Several species of the bacterial genus Yersinia were found in Neolithic individuals from Funnel Beaker culture contexts as well as from later Neolithic context. Transmission of e.g. Y. enterocolitica may have been facilitated by the denser populations in agricultural contexts.

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publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Scientific Reports
volume
14
article number
5630
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • pmid:38453993
  • scopus:85187126539
ISSN
2045-2322
DOI
10.1038/s41598-024-56096-0
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
a98a2cff-19f8-4072-908b-779f5e09c024
date added to LUP
2024-04-04 09:08:09
date last changed
2024-04-18 11:22:35
@article{a98a2cff-19f8-4072-908b-779f5e09c024,
  abstract     = {{<p>With the Neolithic transition, human lifestyle shifted from hunting and gathering to farming. This change altered subsistence patterns, cultural expression, and population structures as shown by the archaeological/zooarchaeological record, as well as by stable isotope and ancient DNA data. Here, we used metagenomic data to analyse if the transitions also impacted the microbiome composition in 25 Mesolithic and Neolithic hunter-gatherers and 13 Neolithic farmers from several Scandinavian Stone Age cultural contexts. Salmonella enterica, a bacterium that may have been the cause of death for the infected individuals, was found in two Neolithic samples from Battle Axe culture contexts. Several species of the bacterial genus Yersinia were found in Neolithic individuals from Funnel Beaker culture contexts as well as from later Neolithic context. Transmission of e.g. Y. enterocolitica may have been facilitated by the denser populations in agricultural contexts.</p>}},
  author       = {{Bergfeldt, Nora and Kırdök, Emrah and Oskolkov, Nikolay and Mirabello, Claudio and Unneberg, Per and Malmström, Helena and Fraser, Magdalena and Sanchez-Quinto, Federico and Jorgensen, Roger and Skar, Birgitte and Lidén, Kerstin and Jakobsson, Mattias and Storå, Jan and Götherström, Anders}},
  issn         = {{2045-2322}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{03}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Scientific Reports}},
  title        = {{Identification of microbial pathogens in Neolithic Scandinavian humans}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-56096-0}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s41598-024-56096-0}},
  volume       = {{14}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}