2024-03-28 12:03:32
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March 28, 2024
16:03 pm
A 4,000-year-old decayed tooth
Prepared by: Mohamed Ezzedine
Irish researchers from Trinity College Dublin have found evidence of bacteria that cause tooth decay and gum disease in 4,000-year-old human molars found in a limestone cave in County Limerick, believed to have belonged to a Bronze Age man.
Lara Cassidy, a professor at the college and the lead researcher for the study, said: “We were able to reconstruct the genome, which is the complete set of genetic material for ancient bacteria. It is very rare to find DNA mutations in ancient tooth samples because these bacteria produce acids that cause tooth decay, but they lead to “Also to DNA degradation, and the conditions of the cave in Kilragh, which is cold, dry and alkaline, may have helped in the exceptional preservation of the mutant DNA. We also found other types of microbes associated with gum disease, including Tannerella forsythia.”
Lara Cassidy added: “We were surprised to see such a high abundance of bacteria in this tooth, which indicates that this man was at risk of developing tooth decay immediately before his death.”
The researchers believe that the “high abundance” of DNA in the root of a tooth indicates an imbalance or disorder in the microbial community in the mouth, and they found, based on DNA analysis, that bacteria changed significantly from the Bronze Age to today.
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