Reconstructing the evolution of human oral microbiome taxonomic and metabolic profiles using DNA from ancient chewed plants

We will retrieve DNA from ancient 'quids'—chewed plant material resembling present-day snus—found in archaeological sites. The aim is to reconstruct the biological functions that were present in the quid chewers' oral microbiome, infer the bacterial species that carried out those functions and trace how oral microbiome taxonomic and metabolic diversity evolved in the Americas throughout the last 15,000 years. The grant will fund a PhD student, a postdoc and the data generation