Paleogenomic insights into the red complex bacteria Tannerella forsythia in Pre-Hispanic and Colonial individuals from Mexico

Here, we report the first direct evidence of ancient Tannerella forsythia DNA in dentin and dental calculus samples from individuals dated to the pre-contact and contact periods from Mexico. We recovered eleven partial ancient T. forsythia genomes and observed a distinct phylogenetic placement of samples from different periods, reflecting that the strains present in pre-contact individuals likely arrived with the first migration into the continent and that new strains were introduced during European Colonization.