Using the teeth of King Richard III of England, it was possible to restore the microbiome of the oral cavity – and suggest that he suffered from periodontitis.

In 2012, skeletal remains were discovered under a car park in Leicester, on the site of the former Greyfriars Church. It has been suggested that they belonged to Richard III – who was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 and taken to Leicester to be buried – as the head injuries matched the descriptions of his death and the curvature of the spine matched his posture. Subsequent genetic analysis confirmed that it was him.

Richard III reigned for only two years during the Wars of the Roses, but managed to leave a deep mark on English history: there were rumors that he was plotting the murder of his nephews by throwing them in the Tower, and William Shakespeare portrayed him as a ruthless villain in his play of the same name.

However, little is known about the king’s daily life. To find out more, molecular biologists scraped remaining plaque from three of his teeth. The results of his genetic analysis were published on BIORHIVIVE.

Record sequencing

Plaque can act as a time capsule, preserving the DNA of microbes or food. For researchers managed to sequence more than 400 million DNA sequences. “The amount of DNA extracted from the dental stone of King Richard III is one of the highest measured in an archaeological context,” they wrote in the paper.

“No one has ever sequenced 400 million ancient DNA sequences—that’s just an astronomical number. This shows that we seem to be able to do things with ancient DNA that we never thought possible before,” says microbiologist Laura Weirich of Pennsylvania State University.

Almost 400 species of microbes have been identified using DNA. Their types are similar to those found in well-preserved dental calculus samples from England, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands over the past 7,000 years, from the Neolithic to the present day.

“This tells us that the nobility had the same microbial strains (as everyone else), despite their luxurious lifestyle, travel and war,” Weirich explains.

The team was unable to obtain enough plant or animal DNA to study Richard’s diet. However, previous analysis of his bones showed that in the last two years of his life he consumed imported wine, as well as a lot of game, fish and birds such as swans, herons and egrets.

According to Weirich, the king’s menu could be determined by comparing samples from his tooth. with the same a tooth from a member of another population. The microbiome is quite different in the front and back of the mouth, on the inside and outside of the teeth.

Dangerous bacteria

One of the bacteria found on Richard III’s teeth was Tannerella forsythia. It is associated with periodontitis, a serious infection of the gums that destroys the bone that supports teeth. Oral hygiene in the 15th century was poor and Richard had tooth decay when he died at the age of 32, but this does not mean he necessarily had periodontitis.

“One person can carry potentially pathogenic bacteria and never get sick, while others will certainly develop inflammation,” says Professor Pierre Stallfort from the Leibniz Institute for Natural Substances Research and Infection Biology in Germany.

To be sure His Majesty had periodontitis, further testing would be needed to detect bone loss in the jaw, Weirich confirms.

“What I really like about this field is the connection between the social sciences, history and genetics. Just having access to the dental stones of historical figures provides amazing opportunities to learn more about their lives,” Stallforth concluded.

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