Prabodha Weerarathne
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Prabodha Weerarathne
@sedigirl.bsky.social
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Reposted by Prabodha Weerarathne
matthewcollins.bsky.social
🧵 Thread: 1️⃣ Fascinating paper by Stewart et al. shows robust method for sex determination using peptides in tooth enamel.

Great potential for #archaeology with fragmentary remains where DNA is degraded. #palaeoproteomics #ZooMS #teammasspec
figshare.com/s/a861c0d74d...
Diagram illustrating sex determination using amelogenin proteins in tooth enamel. The top shows X and Y chromosomally encoded protein isoforms (AMELX in blue, AMELY in red) with their amino acid sequences highlighted. The middle section displays amelogenin's structural progression from protein to nanospheres to matrix to enamel rods, alongside images of developing tooth structure with labeled components (ameloblasts, enamel, dentin, odontoblasts, pulp). The bottom shows Raman spectroscopy setup with IR laser and detector analyzing a tooth, demonstrating how incident light produces both Rayleigh scattering and Raman scattering from molecular vibrations, resulting in sex-specific spectra shown in a graph (blue and red lines) with male and female symbols. Biological sex determination is essential for analyzing human skeletal remains in archaeology, anthropology, and forensic science. This study investigates whether Raman spectroscopy of intact human dental enamel can be used as a non-destructive method for sex estimation. Orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) and logistic regression identified sex-specific spectral characteristics in 88 human teeth from 47 modern individuals (26 females, 21 males). The OPLS-DA model showed excellent performance, with R2Y(cum) = 0.943 and Q2Y(cum) = 0.895. Raman shift wavenumbers at 373, 1182, and 1600 cm−1 were identified as the most reliable discriminators and included in a final logistic regression model. This model achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC-AUC) of 0.98, a sensitivity of 0.87, and a specificity of 0.94. Our results indicate that Raman spectroscopy can effectively differentiate male and female human dental enamel based on subtle differences in molecular composition—possibly linked to residual differences between AMELX and AMELY-derived proteins.
May 6, 2025 at 3:12 AM
Reposted by Prabodha Weerarathne
Humans aren’t the only animals with complex culture − but researchers point to one feature that makes ours unique
theconversation.com/humans-arent...
Humans aren’t the only animals with complex culture − but researchers point to one feature that makes ours unique
Animals can learn from each other, maintaining their cultures for long periods of time. What sets people apart may be the uniquely open-ended ways we invent new ideas and share and build on them.
theconversation.com
March 20, 2025 at 10:30 AM