ArticlePloS one2014
Paleomicrobiology: revealing fecal microbiomes of ancient indigenous cultures.
Article in PloS one, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 77 citations in OpenAlex.
- Probiotic normalization of systemic inflammation in siblings of type 1 diabetes patients: an open-label pilot study.Scientific reports · 2022Trial
- Interactions at theMicrobiology (Reading, England) · 2026Review
- Strengthening Integrative Microbiome Research Through Regional Leadership.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Diet's impact on gut microbial assemblage in health and disease.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2025Review
- Relational Stability: A New Strategy for Defining the Human Core Microbiome.Phenomics (Cham, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Exploring the Pathogen Profiles of Ancient Feces.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Targeted pathogen profiling of ancient feces reveals common enteric infections in the Rio Zape Valley, 725-920 CE.PloS one · 2025Article
- Filtering out the noise: metagenomic classifiers optimize ancient DNA mapping.Briefings in bioinformatics · 2024Article
- Article
- Morphological and molecular characterization of the parasite Dipylidium caninum infecting an infant in Colombia: a case report.Parasites & vectors · 2022Article
- Geographically diverse canid sampling provides novel insights into pre-industrial microbiomes.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Mycobiome-Host Coevolution? The Mycobiome of Ancestral Human Populations Seems to Be Different and Less Diverse Than Those of Extant Native and Urban-Industrialized Populations.Microorganisms · 2022Article
- A complete guide to human microbiomes: Body niches, transmission, development, dysbiosis, and restoration.Frontiers in systems biology · 2022Article
- Integrative analysis of DNA, macroscopic remains and stable isotopes of dog coprolites to reconstruct community diet.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Comparison of Periodontal Bacteria of Edo and Modern Periods Using Novel Diagnostic Approach for Periodontitis With Micro-CT.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2021Article
- Estimating molecular preservation of the intestinal microbiome via metagenomic analyses of latrine sediments from two medieval cities.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Functional diversity of microbial ecologies estimated from ancient human coprolites and dental calculus.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Article
- The past, present and future of ancient bacterial DNA.Microbial genomics · 2020Review
- Article
- The Role of aDNA in Understanding the Coevolutionary Patterns of Human Sexually Transmitted Infections.Genes · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Coprolites are fossilized feces that can be used to provide information on the composition of the intestinal microbiota and, as we show, possibly on diet. We analyzed human coprolites from the Huecoid and Saladoid cultures from a settlement on Vieques Island, Puerto Rico. While more is known about the Saladoid culture, it is believed that both societies co-existed on this island approximately from 5 to 1170 AD. By extracting DNA from the coprolites, followed by metagenomic characterization, we show that both cultures can be distinguished from each other on the basis of their bacterial and fungal gut microbiomes. In addition, we show that parasite loads were heavy and also culturally distinct. Huecoid coprolites were characterized by maize and Basidiomycetes sequences, suggesting that these were important components of their diet. Saladoid coprolite samples harbored sequences associated with fish parasites, suggesting that raw fish was a substantial component of their diet. The present study shows that ancient DNA is not entirely degraded in humid, tropical environments, and that dietary and/or host genetic differences in ancient populations may be reflected in the composition of their gut microbiome. This further supports the hypothesis that the two ancient cultures studied were distinct, and that they retained distinct technological/cultural differences during an extended period of close proximity and peaceful co-existence. The two populations seemed to form the later-day Taínos, the Amerindians present at the point of Columbian contact. Importantly, our data suggest that paleomicrobiomics can be a powerful tool to assess cultural differences between ancient populations.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.