Institute of Archaeological Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China; Department of Anthropology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
Ningxia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Yinchuan 750001, China.
Arch Oral Biol. 2025 Jan;169:106104. doi: 10.1016/j.archoralbio.2024.106104. Epub 2024 Oct 2.
This research aimed to report hypodontia cases in a Middle Bronze Age high-tier cemetery in China and test the possible hereditary behind hypodontia by performing kinship tests on those individuals.
In this study, dental anomalies were observed on a human skeletal sample (n = 45) uncovered from Yaoheyuan, China. Ancient DNA analysis was subsequently employed on a subsample of the Yaoheyuan individuals (n = 15), including individuals observed hypodontia and individuals randomly sampled from the cemetery for preliminary investigation on the cemetery demography. Kinship estimation tests (READ, TKGWV2, KIN, and F3 test) were subsequently employed.
The Yaoheyuan elite population had a prevalence (n = 7, 15 %) of tooth agenesis in either the maxilla or mandible, with one to two teeth missing. All missing teeth were incisors, except for one individual missing maxillary second molar. Preliminary ancient DNA results indicate that several kinship groups existed among interred individuals, including those with hypodontia, indicating the hereditary origin of these cases.
The prevalence of hypodontia observed on site is high compared to that in both modern East Asian populations and archaeological samples in the Chinese population. The preliminary kinship analysis suggests a case of familial hypodontia. Ancient DNA analysis should be thoroughly conducted in future studies to understand the genetic markers contributing to those hypodontia cases among the Yaoheyuan individuals.
本研究旨在报告中国一个中青铜时代高级墓地的缺牙病例，并通过对这些个体进行亲属关系测试，检验缺牙背后可能的遗传因素。
本研究观察了来自中国瑶河源的一个人类骨骼样本（n=45）中的牙齿异常。随后对瑶河源个体的一个亚样本（n=15）进行了古 DNA 分析，包括观察到缺牙的个体和从墓地中随机抽取的个体，以初步调查墓地人口统计学。随后进行了亲属关系估计测试（READ、TKGWV2、KIN 和 F3 测试）。
瑶河源精英人群的上颌或下颌存在牙齿缺失（n=7，15%），缺失一到两颗牙齿。除了一个缺失上颌第二磨牙的个体外，所有缺失的牙齿都是切牙。初步的古 DNA 结果表明，埋葬个体之间存在几个亲属群体，包括缺牙者，表明这些病例具有遗传起源。
与现代东亚人群和中国考古样本相比，现场观察到的缺牙患病率较高。初步的亲属关系分析提示存在家族性缺牙病例。未来的研究应彻底进行古 DNA 分析，以了解导致瑶河源个体缺牙的遗传标记。
