Although proteomic techniques have been increasingly used to improve our understanding of the human past, few have focussed on the study of tooth enamel for sexing in archaeofaunal remains, despite initial studies over a decade ago investigating human teeth. Here we explore the use of LC-orbitrap-MS/MS for identifying the sex of archaeological domestic cattle remains from the Neolithic enclosure at Kilshane, Ireland (c. 3600 cal. BC), in addition to modern reference materials. Although several individuals could be confidently identified as male, and some less confidently as female, there were also some inconsistencies with predictions based on morphology, albeit such estimations based largely on size. Through comparison with osteometric analyses, the proteomic analyses estimated 14 consistent identifications and six discrepancies, with one of the two speculative males confirmed through the use of proteomics. The male/female proportions for the osteometric analysis based on the metacarpals, the most sexually dimorphic skeletal element, showed that slightly over 50% of the bones were from females and slightly under 50% from males, whereas in the case of proteomics, depending on what level of caution we place on biomarker usage, this is much lower for the identification of males, ranging from 12.5 to 46% (3–11 specimens of 24 successful proteome samples with estimated sex based on their molars). Unexpectedly, our results show evidence of clear differences between modern reference materials and archaeological materials, likely reflecting preservation biases relating to the protein sequences.

中文翻译：

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新石器时代 Kilshane 考古牛遗骸的蛋白质组学性别鉴定


尽管蛋白质组学技术越来越多地被用于提高我们对人类历史的理解，但很少有人专注于研究古生物遗骸中牙釉质的性别鉴定，尽管十多年前就进行了初步研究，调查了人类的牙齿。在这里，我们探讨了使用 LC-orbitrap-MS/MS 来识别爱尔兰 Kilshane 新石器时代围墙（约公元前 3600 年）考古家牛遗骸的性别，以及现代参考资料。尽管可以自信地将几个个体识别为雄性，而一些个体则不太自信地识别为雌性，但与基于形态学的预测也存在一些不一致之处，尽管这种估计主要基于大小。通过与骨质测量学分析的比较，蛋白质组学分析估计了 14 个一致的鉴定和 6 个差异，其中两个推测性男性中的一个通过使用蛋白质组学得到证实。基于掌骨（最具性别二态性的骨骼元素）的骨量分析的男性/女性比例显示，略高于 50% 的骨骼来自女性，略低于 50% 来自男性，而在蛋白质组学的情况下，取决于我们对生物标志物使用的谨慎程度，这对于男性的识别要低得多， 范围从 12.5% 到 46% 不等（3-11 个成功的蛋白质组样本中的 24 个标本，根据它们的磨牙估计性别）。出乎意料的是，我们的结果显示现代参考材料和考古材料之间存在明显差异，这可能反映了与蛋白质序列相关的保存偏差。