When humans turned to agriculture, and later to modern starch- and sugar-filled diets, the microbes colonizing their teeth changed drastically.
Alan Cooper at the University of Adelaide, Australia, and his colleagues sequenced microbial DNA from the calcified dental plaque (pictured) of 34 mesolithic to medieval human skeletons. The oral microbial populations of individuals who lived in early farming communities were much less diverse than those of hunter-gatherers, and harboured more bacteria linked to diseases such as gingivitis.
Contemporary microbial populations are, in turn, less diverse than those of earlier communities and are dominated by bacteria linked to diseases such as those that cause cavities. The authors believe that the recent shift probably occurred during the Industrial Revolution, when processed sugar and flour became widely available.
Nature Genet. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ng.2536 (2013)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Healthier prehistoric plaque. Nature 494, 405 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/494405a
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/494405a
