DIGEST
TOM BJÖRKLUND;Slime mould
Lola found in
ancient chewing
gum
Genetics researchers sequence DNA
from birch pitch.
This is an artistic reconstruction of “Lola”
who, Danish researchers believe, lived
around 5700 years ago. They obtained her
entire genome, and learned a lot about her
likely diet, from the DNA in a specimen of
chewed birch pitch.
The team led by Hannes Schroeder from
the University of Denmark determined
the DNA was from a female and, based on
genetic variation in several genes, that she
likely had dark hair, dark skin and blue eyes.
Writing in the journal Nature
Communications, they suggest Lola was
more closely related to western hunter-
gatherers from continental Europe than
hunter-gatherers from central Scandinavia.
Birch pitch is obtained by heating birch
bark and has been used as an adhesive
since the Middle Pleistocene (760,000 to
126,000 years ago).
Small lumps of it have been found
at archaeological sites and have often
included tooth imprints, suggesting they
were chewed.
In the non-human ancient DNA found
in their specimen, Schroeder and colleagues
detected bacterial species characteristic
of the oral microbiome, some of which are
known pathogens such asPorphyromonas
gingivalis, which are implicated in gum
disease. –NICK CARNEGENETICS
MENAGERIE