Ricerc@Sapienza

With Katerina Guschanski (University of Edinburgh) and Mary Anne Tafuri (Sapienza University) we are using ancient DNA extracted from dental calculus of classical and post-classical individuals dating to I-VIII century CE, to gain novel insights into the diets, health statuses, and origins of human populations that lived in central Italy.

We are using the metabarcoding tecnique on sedimentary DNA (sedDNA) from three volcanic Italian lakes: Lago Grande di Monticchio, Lago di Nemi, and Lago di Martignano. At Monticchio, we have already identified over 90 plant taxa from a long sediment core covering the period from 1.4 to 31 thousand years before present. To maximize our results, we have developed new strategies to improve DNA extraction from mineral-adsorbed samples and counteract PCR inhibition. We are also testing new probes designed to capture short plant DNA sequences using shotgun sequencing.