The Europeans did not take leprosy to America
The latest developments in ancient DNA analysis compels history history at times: It is a dismantling study that the Europeans will carry leprosy To America, you find genetic samples from individuals from Argentina and Canada who suffered from this disease centuries before reaching the European.
Leprosy is a disease that follows Affect Thousands of people around the world. Almost every year 200,000 new cases. Until 2008, it was believed that “radical fungi” was only responsible for the disease, but that year another type was also found caused, “fungal omtum disease”, which was identified in a Mexican patient in the United States, and later, in the red squirrels in UK In 2016.
Now, a study by scientists from the Pasteur Institute, the National Center for French Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Colorado (USA), in cooperation with indigenous communities and more than 40 international researchers, including archaeologists, were these new bacteria, which in 2008 found the head of the first infection before the arrival of Europeans.
The study, described on Thursday in the magazine sciencesIt was based on the DNA analysis near 800 samplesBetween ancient human remains (from archaeological excavations) and modern clinical conditions that have provided leprosy symptoms.
“This discovery transformation “Our understanding of the history of leprosy in America, which indicates the existence of a copy of the disease that was already settler among the indigenous people before the arrival of the Europeans,” says one of the authors, Maria Le Polulo, a researcher at the Blaujini microbial laboratory in a statement at the center.
A very travel disease
The researchers used advanced genetic techniques to rebuild the “Mycobacterium LePrae” bacteria for individuals in Canada and Argentina. The results showed that the old strains of bacteria, which date back to similar periods in both cases (about 1000 years), were. Very similar From the genetic point of view despite the distance. As for researchers, the nurse is certain mushroom Quickly throughout the American continent within a few centuries.
Scientists have also identified many new genealogies for bacteria, including the ancestral branch, despite their differences of species known for more than 9000 years, Sigue injury For human beings today in North America, which will talk about ancient and permanent diversification of bacteria on the continent.
Analysis shows that the strains in the red squirrel in the United Kingdom in 2016 are part of a American proportions It was entered into the British islands in the nineteenth century, where it would be spread later.
“This study shows how DNA Old and modern Another authors, Nicholas Rasvan, also says at the Al -Fulaz Institute.
The researchers emphasize that this research project was implemented in close cooperation with Indigenous communitiesWhich participated in the decisions related to the use of grandparents ’residue and the interpretation of the results.
The old DNA and the remaining materials were returned upon request, and the data that was created has been shared Ethical platforms Adaptable is designed to allow the exchange of data that meets the specific expectations of each community.
