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May 15 (UPI) – Scientists have recovered 10,000-year-old human gum DNA discovered in Sweden. The DNA is the oldest sequenced of the region.
The researchers found mashed pieces of birch pitch, a sap-like tar, among the remains of a former Mesolithic hunter-fishing site called Huseby Klev, located on the west coast of Sweden.
During the Stone Age, humans used bark-based chewing gum as glue to make tools. The gum pieces were discovered in the 1990s, but scientists had not yet developed the technology needed to treat human DNA.
Swedish and Norwegian scientists were able to extract DNA from the chewed gum and sequence the genome of three individuals.
DNA analysis showed that individuals were closely related to other hunter-gatherer groups in Scandinavia, as well as to the Mesolithic populations of Europe. However, the tools found at Huseby Klev are part of the technological lineage that archaeologists have traced in the eastern-European plain, modern Russia.
The new genetic data, detailed this week in the journal Communications Biology, suggests that Scandinavia has hosted a unique convergence of disparate genetic and technological lineages.
"The demographic analysis suggests that the genetic makeup of Huseby Klev individuals has more similarities than western hunter-gatherer populations compared to eastern hunter-gatherers," said Emrah Kirdök, researcher at the University of Stockholm, in a press release.
Scientists hope that new discoveries of early DNA will provide additional information on the origins, patterns of migration and behaviors of early Scandinavian settlers.
"The DNA of these ancient chewing gum has tremendous potential not only to trace the origin and movement of peoples, but also to provide information on their social relationships, diseases and diet," he said. said Per Persson, a researcher at the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo.
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