Journal
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Volume 3, Issue 1, Pages 58-70Publisher
ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/20548923.2017.1361629
Keywords
Archaeology; dental calculus; destructive analysis; LC-MS/MS; shotgun proteomics; protein preservation
Categories
Funding
- Wellcome Trust [108375/Z/15/Z]
- University of York - Wellcome Trust [097829/Z/11/A]
- Max Planck Society
- Arts and Humanities Research Council [AH/N005015/1]
- AHRC [1802124] Funding Source: UKRI
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Proteomic analysis of dental calculus is emerging as a powerful tool for disease and dietary characterisation of archaeological populations. To better understand the variability in protein results from dental calculus, we analysed 21 samples from three Roman-period populations to compare: 1) the quantity of extracted protein; 2) the number of mass spectral queries; and 3) the number of peptide spectral matches and protein identifications. We found little correlation between the quantity of calculus analysed and total protein identifications, as well as no systematic trends between site location and protein preservation. We identified a wide range of individual variability, which may be associated with the mechanisms of calculus formation and/or post-depositional contamination, in addition to taphonomic factors. Our results suggest dental calculus is indeed a stable, long-term reservoir of proteins as previously reported, but further systematic studies are needed to identify mechanisms associated with protein entrapment and survival in dental calculus.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available