Whole genome sequence of bacteremic Clostridium tertium in a World War I soldier, 1914

Abstract

Highlights This original article is the first report of isolate and culture of a bacterium from ancient human samples and dental pulp in particular. The dental pulp is a mirror of the individual's infectious state at the time of death. Ancient dental pulp culture yielded to the identification and isolation of the bacterium Clostridium tertium responsible for septicaemia during World War I,.

Clostridium tetanibacteraemia in the plague area in France: two cases

“…Indeed, highly vascularised dental pulp supported culturing a blood drop trapped inside the pulp cavity at the time of death. A sporulated form of C. tetani allowed the pathogen to survive for five centuries, a situation antedating by four centuries that of Clostridium tertium in 1914 soldiers ‘dental pulp in a quite a different historical and archaeological context (9). With the presence of appropriate controls, this observation of C. tetani recovered from two ancient pulp samples therefore led to the diagnosis of C. tetani bacteraemia, a condition rarely reported in the literature.…”

“…The possibility of cultivating bacteria from archaeological dental material and from ancient dental pulp in particular opens up new perspectives for palaeomicrobiology. Bacteraemia-causing microorganisms, otherwise undetectable, can be highlighted or isolated by this method (9).…”

“…Paleoculturomics: Each tooth yielded calculus before the external surface was disinfected with 99% ethanol and bleach for 30 seconds. All further steps were performed under an anaerobic hood (Don Whitley, Bingley, UK) in order to avoid exposure to atmospheric oxygen in the presence of negative controls, as previously described (9). All the instruments used for tooth opening and dental pulp extraction were sterilised before being placed under the anaerobic hood.…”

An Ancient Coronavirus from Individuals in France, Circa 16th Century

“…The storage of archaeological samples was done in a dedicated closed cabinet, and the recovery of dental pulp and protein extraction were done under a hood exclusively dedicated to the handling of archaeological samples, in which no modern samples were ever manipulated. Each tool used for pulp recovery was autoclaved beforehand and each reagent used as described in our protocol was new and care-fully decontaminated as previously reported [25] . We have carefully included for each experiment, paleoserology and paleoproteomics, in addition to our negative controls, at least two blanks (extraction controls) per experiment that were handled under the same conditions and at the same time as our samples to prevent any contamination by the operators.…”