Institute for Mummy Studies, EURAC Research, Viale Druso 1, 39100 Bolzano, Italy.
Institute for Mummy Studies, EURAC Research, Viale Druso 1, 39100 Bolzano, Italy.
Curr Biol. 2021 Dec 6;31(23):5149-5162.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.09.031. Epub 2021 Oct 13.
We subjected human paleofeces dating from the Bronze Age to the Baroque period (18 century AD) to in-depth microscopic, metagenomic, and proteomic analyses. The paleofeces were preserved in the underground salt mines of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Hallstatt in Austria. This allowed us to reconstruct the diet of the former population and gain insights into their ancient gut microbiome composition. Our dietary survey identified bran and glumes of different cereals as some of the most prevalent plant fragments. This highly fibrous, carbohydrate-rich diet was supplemented with proteins from broad beans and occasionally with fruits, nuts, or animal food products. Due to these traditional dietary habits, all ancient miners up to the Baroque period have gut microbiome structures akin to modern non-Westernized individuals whose diets are also mainly composed of unprocessed foods and fresh fruits and vegetables. This may indicate a shift in the gut community composition of modern Westernized populations due to quite recent dietary and lifestyle changes. When we extended our microbial survey to fungi present in the paleofeces, in one of the Iron Age samples, we observed a high abundance of Penicillium roqueforti and Saccharomyces cerevisiae DNA. Genome-wide analysis indicates that both fungi were involved in food fermentation and provides the first molecular evidence for blue cheese and beer consumption in Iron Age Europe.
我们对来自青铜时代到巴洛克时期(公元 18 世纪)的人类古粪便进行了深入的微观、宏基因组和蛋白质组分析。这些古粪便保存在奥地利联合国教科文组织世界遗产地哈尔施塔特的地下盐矿中。这使我们能够重建古代居民的饮食结构,并深入了解他们古老的肠道微生物群组成。我们的饮食调查确定了麸皮和不同谷物的颖壳是最常见的植物碎片之一。这种高纤维、富含碳水化合物的饮食辅以蚕豆和偶尔的水果、坚果或动物食品中的蛋白质。由于这些传统的饮食习惯,直到巴洛克时期的所有古代矿工的肠道微生物群结构都类似于现代非西方化个体,他们的饮食也主要由未加工的食物和新鲜水果和蔬菜组成。这可能表明,由于最近的饮食和生活方式的改变,现代西方化人群的肠道群落组成发生了转变。当我们将微生物调查扩展到古粪便中存在的真菌时,在一个铁器时代的样本中,我们观察到了大量的青霉和酿酒酵母 DNA。全基因组分析表明,这两种真菌都参与了食物发酵,并为铁器时代欧洲蓝纹奶酪和啤酒的消费提供了第一个分子证据。