Staphylococcus aureus Sequences from Osteomyelitic Specimens of a Pathological Bone Collection from Pre-Antibiotic Times

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus is a major pathogen causing osteomyelitis, amongst other diseases, and its methicillin-resistant form (MRSA) in particular poses a huge threat to public health. To increase our knowledge of the origin and evolution of S. aureus, genetic studies of historical microorganisms may be beneficial. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate whether osteomyelitic skeletal material (autopsy specimens collected from the mid 19th century until the 1920s) is suitable for detecting historical S. aureus DNA sequences. We established a PCR-based analysis system targeting two specific genes of S. aureus (nuc and fib). We successfully amplified the historical S. aureus nuc and fib sequences for six and seven pre-antibiotic, osteomyelitic bone specimens, respectively. These results encourage further investigations of historical S. aureus genomes that may increase our understanding of pathogen evolution in relation to anthropogenically introduced antibiotics.

Diagenesis of archaeological bone and tooth

“…One obvious area is the detection of ante-and peri-mortem infections in archaeological skeletons. Staphylococcus DNA has successfully been identified in bones exhibiting osteomyelitic infection in an historic osteological collection (Flux et al, 2017) . It remains to be seen if this can be repeated on archaeological specimens.…”

“Raptus Sabinae?” complemented: molecular genetic studies on a female calvarium of the Bandkeramik settlement of Rovantsi in Volhynia (UA)

“…Four aliquots of 0.25 g each of the powder were incubated in 3900 µl EDTA (0.5 M, pH 8.3) including 100 µl of Proteinase K for 18 h in order to chemically disolve the inorganic apatite component of the bone powder and to break down the protein backbone of the bone cells and their nuclei. The subsequent steps of DNA isolation and purification were conducted following a standard protocol (Frischalowski et al 2015;Flux et al 2017). This protocol starts with an organic extraction using phenol and chloroform and is continued in the QIAvac extraction system (Qiagen®) using MinElute® columns in order to separate the DNA molecules and to reduce the finale volume of the extract to 50 µl.…”