Publication details
Soil analysis in the context of paleogenetics
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2022 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| Citation | |
| Description | The soil was always considered as contamination in paleogenetical studies of ancient humans, as something to get rid of. Lately, with metagenomic studies of dental calculus and other non-human ancient DNA (aDNA) research, it is used for assessing surroundings baseline. With our research, we want to show its value in deepening our knowledge about ancestral populations and how they lived. In our research, we focused on finding the most suitable method for extraction of aDNA from soil samples and optimized it for different types of soil. The extracted aDNA was then sequenced in pilot project by metagenomic sequencing of variable regions V1 and V6 of the 16S rRNA gene on Illumina platform. For example, this can be used for gut microbiome reconstruction. As part of the same research project, we are collecting paleoparasitology samples from the soil in the area of the abdomen of buried individuals. Soil can also be a valuable sample for proteomic analysis. Our results confirm the variability induced by different extraction methods, especially in the group of Actinobacteria and Gemmatimonadetes. With combined knowledge gained from soil analysis, our group aims to see how diet is related to the microbiome and health of ancient humans. |
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