Identification of milk component in ancient food residue by proteomics

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 7; no. 5; p. e37053
• Main Authors: Hong, Chuan, Jiang, Hongen, Lü, Enguo, Wu, Yunfei, Guo, Lihai, Xie, Yongming, Wang, Changsui, Yang, Yimin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 16-05-2012; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Amino acid sequence; Analysis; Animals; Archaeology; Archaeology - methods; Beef cattle; Biology; Bronze Age; Casein; Caseins - chemistry; Cattle; Cemeteries; Ceramics; Chromatography; Chromatography, Liquid - methods; Dairy cattle; Domestication; Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; Evolution; Exploitation; Farmers; Food; Food Analysis - methods; Fossils; History, Ancient; Homology; Identification; Immunology; Laboratories; Lipids; Liquid chromatography; Mass spectrometry; Mass spectroscopy; Methods; Milk; Milk - chemistry; Milk Proteins - analysis; Milk Proteins - chemistry; Milking; Neolithic; Ovis aries; Paleontology; Prehistoric; Prehistoric era; Prehistory; Proteins; Proteomics; Proteomics - methods; Science; Scientific imaging; Sheep; Social and Behavioral Sciences; Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization - methods; Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization - methods; Beijing China; China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0037053

Proteomic approaches based on mass spectrometry have been recently used in archaeological and art researches, generating promising results for protein identification. Little information is known about eastward spread and eastern limits of prehistoric milking in eastern Eurasia.
In this paper, an ancient visible food remain from Subeixi Cemeteries (cal. 500 to 300 years BC) of the Turpan Basin in Xinjiang, China, preliminarily determined containing 0.432 mg/kg cattle casein with ELISA, was analyzed by using an improved method based on liquid chromatography (LC) coupled with MALDI-TOF/TOF-MS to further identify protein origin. The specific sequence of bovine casein and the homology sequence of goat/sheep casein were identified.
The existence of milk component in ancient food implies goat/sheep and cattle milking in ancient Subeixi region, the furthest eastern location of prehistoric milking in the Old World up to date. It is envisioned that this work provides a new approach for ancient residue analysis and other archaeometry field.