Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark.
Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen K, Denmark.
PLoS One. 2018 Apr 25;13(4):e0195481. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0195481. eCollection 2018.
High-resolution insight into parasitic infections and diet of past populations in Northern Europe and the Middle East (500 BC- 1700 AD) was obtained by pre-concentration of parasite eggs from ancient latrines and deposits followed by shotgun sequencing of DNA. Complementary profiling of parasite, vertebrate and plant DNA proved highly informative in the study of ancient health, human-animal interactions as well as animal and plant dietary components. Most prominent were finding of soil-borne parasites transmitted directly between humans, but also meat-borne parasites that require consumption of raw or undercooked fish and pork. The detection of parasites for which sheep, horse, dog, pig, and rodents serves as definitive hosts are clear markers of domestic and synanthropic animals living in closer proximity of the respective sites. Finally, the reconstruction of full mitochondrial parasite genomes from whipworm (Ascaris lumbricoides) and roundworm species (Trichuris trichiura and Trichuris muris) and estimates of haplotype frequencies elucidates the genetic diversity and provides insights into epidemiology and parasite biology.
通过对古代厕所和沉积物中的寄生虫卵进行预浓缩，然后对 DNA 进行鸟枪法测序，我们深入了解了北欧和中东地区（公元前 500 年至公元 1700 年）过去人群的寄生虫感染和饮食情况。寄生虫、脊椎动物和植物 DNA 的互补分析在研究古代健康、人类与动物的相互作用以及动物和植物饮食成分方面提供了非常有价值的信息。最突出的发现是直接在人与人之间传播的土壤传播寄生虫，还有需要食用生的或未煮熟的鱼和猪肉的肉传播寄生虫。检测到以羊、马、狗、猪和啮齿动物为终宿主的寄生虫，这是明确的标记，表明这些动物生活在各自地点的附近，是家养和半驯化动物。最后，从鞭虫（Ascaris lumbricoides）和蛔虫（Trichuris trichiura 和 Trichuris muris）中重建完整的线粒体寄生虫基因组，并估计单倍型频率，阐明了遗传多样性，并深入了解了寄生虫生物学和流行病学。
