Scientific Archaeology and D-REAMS Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory, Weizmann Institute of Science, 760001, Rehovot, Israel.
Nancy and Stephen Grand Israel National Center for Personalized Medicine G-INCPM, Weizmann Institute of Science, 760001, Rehovot, Israel.
Sci Rep. 2024 Aug 6;14(1):18195. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-68603-4.
Identification of the sex of modern, fossil and archaeological animal remains offers many insights into their demography, mortality profiles and domestication pathways. However, due to many-factors, sex determination of osteological remains is often problematic. To overcome this, we have developed an innovative protocol to determine an animal's sex from tooth enamel, by applying label-free quantification (LFQ) of two unique AmelY peptides 'LRYPYP' (AmelY;[M+2] 404.7212 m/z) and 'LRYPYPSY' (AmelY;[M+2] 529.7689 m/z) that are only present in the enamel of males. We applied this method to eight modern cattle (Bos taurus) of known sex, and correctly assigned them to sex. We then applied the same protocol to twelve archaeological Bos teeth from the Neolithic site of Beisamoun, Israel (8-th-7-th millennium BC) and determined the sex of the archaeological samples. Since teeth are usually better preserved than bones, this innovative protocol has potential to facilitate sex determination in ancient and modern bovine remains that currently cannot be sexed.
鉴定现代、化石和考古动物遗骸的性别可以深入了解它们的种群动态、死亡率特征和驯化途径。然而，由于多种因素，骨骼遗骸的性别鉴定往往存在问题。为了解决这个问题，我们开发了一种从牙釉质确定动物性别的创新方案，通过应用两个独特的 AmelY 肽“LRYPYP”（AmelY；[M+2] 404.7212 m/z）和“LRYPYPSY”（AmelY；[M+2] 529.7689 m/z）的无标签定量（LFQ）来确定雄性动物的性别。这两种肽仅存在于雄性的牙釉质中。我们将该方法应用于 8 只已知性别的现代牛（Bos taurus），并正确地将它们分配到性别。然后，我们将相同的方案应用于来自以色列 Beisamoun 新石器时代遗址的 12 颗考古牛牙（公元前 8-7 千年），并确定了考古样本的性别。由于牙齿通常比骨骼保存得更好，因此这个创新方案有可能促进目前无法确定性别的古代和现代牛遗骸的性别鉴定。
