Molecular history of tuberculosis from ancient mummies and skeletons

Abstract

The origin and evolution of the infectious disease tuberculosis (TB) and its pathogens is still not fully understood. An important effort for a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of TB evolution lies within the investigation of skeletal and mummified material dating back several thousand of years. In this work, molecular data from mummified and skeletal material from different time periods of the Old World are compared, and the current status of ancient mycobacterial DNA analysis in ancient human remains is discussed, with particular reference to the genetic evolution of human TB. The molecular analysis of material from southern Germany (1400-1800 AD), Hungary (600-1700 AD) and Egypt (3500-500 BC) revealed high frequencies of TB in all time periods. In several individuals from ancient Egypt the mycobacterial DNA could be further characterised by spoligotyping. Thereby, evidence for ancestral M. tuberculosis strains was found in the pre-to early dynastic material from Abydos (3500-2650 BC), while typical M. africanum signatures were detected in the Middle Kingdom tomb in Thebes-West (2050-1650. Samples from the New Kingdom to Late Period tombs (1500-500 BC) were characterised as modern M. tuberculosis strains. In concordance with other studies on ancient skeletal and mummified samples, no evidence for the presence of M. bovis was found. These results contradict the theory that M. tuberculosis evolved from M. bovis during domestication, but supports the new scenario that M. tuberculosis probably derived from an ancestral progenitor strain.

A Mycobacterium tuberculosis komplex archaikus DNS kimutatása emberi csontvázmaradványokból

“…Unfortunately, the biomolecular examination of this complete series would be very time-consuming and would require a large amount of funds in order to be completed, however the high TB-infectious rate of the population was proved. Our new results are supporting data of some earlier studies about high TB prevalence in this population (Pálfi and Ardagna, 2002;Zink et al, 2007). The spoligotyping pictures different MTBC pathogens, although the precise Mycobacterium (M. tuberculosis, M.…”

“…A teljes széria biomolekuláris vizsgálatát, annak rendkívüli költség-, és időigénye miatt nem végezhettük el, de a populáció magas tbc-fertőzöttségi rátája így is igazolást nyert. A disszertációban, ill. az ehhez szorosan kapcsolható publikációban közölt adatok alátámasztják több korábbi tanulmány adatait, melyek már a bácsalmási széria magas tbc prevalenciáját sejtették Pálfi és Ardagna, 2002;Zink et al, 2007) …”

“…A teljes széria biomolekuláris vizsgálatát, annak rendkívüli költség-, és időigénye miatt nem végezhettük el, de a populáció magas tbc-fertőzöttségi rátája így is igazolást nyert. Új eredményeink alátámasztják több korábbi tanulmány adatait, melyek már a bácsalmási széria magas tbc prevalenciáját sejtették (Pálfi és Ardagna, 2002;Zink et al, 2007). A spoligotyping különböző típusú MTBC fertőzéseket jelzett a szériában, de a degradáltsági fok miatt pontos Mycobacterium fajmeghatározást (M. bovis, M.…”

Mycolic Acids as Markers of Osseous Tuberculosis in the Neolithic Skeleton from Kujawy Region (Central Poland)

“…Another step in the advancement of PCR methods for studying mycobacterial aDNA was the development of the spoligotyping technique enabling differentiation between the various strains of the M. tuberculosis complex. One of the most important results attained using this method is undoubtedly the fact that it challenged the view that M.tb evolved from M. bovis as a result of transmission of bacteria to humans from newly domesticated cattle about 10,000-15,000 years BC (Brosch et al 2002;Donoghue et al 2004;Zink et al 2007). Detailed genomic data, confirming ancient tuberculosis, have been recently obtained by use of so-called Next Generation Sequencing (Bouwman et al 2012) and direct Metagenomics (Chan et al 2013).…”

Skeletal manifestations of infantile scurvy in a late medieval anthropological series from Hungary

“…The Bácsalmás-Óalmás series has been the subject of numerous publications dealing with general palaeopathological investigation (Lovász et al, 2005;Lovász, 2008), various palaeopathological cases (Horváth et al, 1994;Pálfi et al, 1996;Lovász et al, 2009), tuberculosis Pálfi et al, 1997;Pálfi and Ardagna, 2002;Maczel, 2003;Molnár et al, 2005;Marcsik et al, 2006;Pálfi and Molnár, 2009;Bereczki et al, 2009), as well as palaeomicrobiology (Haas et al, 1999(Haas et al, , 2000Zink et al, 2007;Neparáczki et al, 2011;Pósa et al, 2013).…”