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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Human
remains found in Peru point to the water animal for spreading a disease that is
perhaps younger than previously thought, according to new research.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#111111'>Seals accused of spreading TB to the Americas</span></b><span
style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#111111'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>By
Agnes Rivera<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>August
21, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a
href="http://www.peruthisweek.com/news-seals-accused-of-spreading-tb-to-the-americas-103700">http://www.peruthisweek.com/news-seals-accused-of-spreading-tb-to-the-americas-103700</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;
margin-left:0in;line-height:14.7pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:
10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>According to a study
published on August 20th by the science journal Nature, human remains have been
collected in Peru that suggest seals are responsible for spreading tuberculosis
(TB) to humans. This could explain how people living in Peru, at a time when
the North and South Americas had been isolated from each other, were exposed to
the infectious TB.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;
margin-left:0in;line-height:14.7pt;background:white;orphans: auto;text-align:
start;widows: auto;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;word-spacing:0px'><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Origin
of this disease has often been disputed. Commonly linked to Africa, it is also
considered that TB was brought westward when the Spaniards came upon the New
World in the sixteenth century.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:14.7pt;background:white;
orphans: auto;text-align:start;widows: auto;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
word-spacing:0px'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#333333'>Recently however scientists have studied ancient bacterial
genome sequences, collected from human remains in Peru, that suggest the
disease was present in the region of Peru before European contact. The National
Geographic<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/08/20/seals-may-have-carried-tuberculosis-to-the-new-world/"><span
style='color:#0066CC;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>reports</span></a><span
class=apple-converted-space> </span>that Jane Buikstra, one member of the
six-person team, excavated three skeletons from a southern Peru site. According
to Buikstra, “their warped spines and ribs showed unmistakable signs of
the disease”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:14.7pt;background:white'><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:14.7pt;background:white;
orphans: auto;text-align:start;widows: auto;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
word-spacing:0px'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#333333'>The<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><span
class=caps><span style='border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in'>DNA</span></span><span
class=apple-converted-space> </span>of the three skeletons was then
studied, and the team was able to detect an older strain of TB uncommon from
the modern human strain.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;
margin-left:0in;line-height:14.7pt;background:white;orphans: auto;text-align:
start;widows: auto;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;word-spacing:0px'><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>In
fact, the ancient strains from Peru were found to be very similar to
Mycobacterium pinnipedii, a form of tuberculosis adapted to seals and sea
lions. In modern times, this tuberculosis strain has been passed from seals to
humans in zoos, but in the past it was spread to dwellers of the South American
coast who hunted these water animals.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;
margin-left:0in;line-height:14.7pt;background:white;orphans: auto;text-align:
start;widows: auto;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;word-spacing:0px'><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Comparing
these two strains of TB, the modern with the old, the scientists were able to
estimate just how old M. tuberculosis is. Kirsten Bos, another team member,
explained to the National Geographic that a molecular clock was created to
measure “how rapidly the genetic changes accumulated in the past”.
To the researchers’ surprise, results showed that the disease is perhaps
only 6,000 years old; much younger in comparison to the often believed age of
70, 000 years.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;
margin-left:0in;line-height:14.7pt;background:white;orphans: auto;text-align:
start;widows: auto;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;word-spacing:0px'><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>As
quoted on Nature’s webpage, Terry Brown, a biomolecular archaeologist at
the University of Manchester, UK states, “This is a landmark paper that
challenges our previous ideas about the origins of tuberculosis, not just in
the Americas but in the Old World too”. He adds however that more studies
need to be performed before results of a seal-origin can be confirmed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:11.25pt;
margin-left:0in;line-height:14.7pt;background:white;orphans: auto;text-align:
start;widows: auto;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;word-spacing:0px'><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Tom Gilbert,
an evolutionary biologist at the University of Copenhagen, hesitantly comments
that while the seal theory is possible, scientists have not “sampled
enough relevant terrestrial hosts on the continent to spot the true
ancestor”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>//////////////////////////////////////////////////<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Very
few people suspected the seals.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a
href="http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/08/20/seals-may-have-carried-tuberculosis-to-the-new-world/"><span
style='color:black;text-decoration:none'>Seals May Have Carried Tuberculosis To
The New World</span></a></span></b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:
"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span class=by><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:
"Arial","sans-serif"'>by</span></i></span><span class=apple-converted-space><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> </span></span><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Ed Yong<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>20
August 2014<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/08/20/seals-may-have-carried-tuberculosis-to-the-new-world/<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:19.5pt'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:black'><a
href="http://www.geo.uni-tuebingen.de/mitarbeiter/alphabetisch/detailansicht-alphabetisch.html?tx_wtdirectory_pi1%5bshow%5d=583&tx_rggooglemap_pi1%5bpoi%5d=583&cHash=b17adca5184ec0e49daeaa977fef27c9"><span
style='color:#808285'>Kirsten Bos</span></a><span class=apple-converted-space> </span>from
the University of Tubingen certainly didn’t when she and her colleagues
started studying three Peruvian skeletons. They were just trying to understand
the history of tuberculosis—a disease that has affected humans for
millennia and still kills millions every year. Team member Jane Buikstra
excavated three early victims from a site in southern Peru; their warped spines
and ribs showed unmistakeable signs of the disease.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:19.5pt'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:black'>Even though the bones were around 1,000 years old, the team still
managed to extract DNA from them. These included sequences belonging to <i>Mycobacterium
tuberculosis</i>, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. The researchers
calculated that these ancient sequences last shared a common ancestor with
modern<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><i>M.tuberculosis</i><span
class=apple-converted-space> </span>strains 6,000 years ago.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:19.5pt'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:black'>That was the first big surprise. The general opinion among
scientists who study tuberculosis is that it’s an ancient disease that
started infecting humans back when we all lived in Africa—after all,
that’s where the strains are at their most diverse. As we spread around
the globe, this pernicious partner hitched a ride and co-evolved with us.
Genetic studies support this view. A big one, published just last year,
estimated that all human tuberculosis strains <a
href="http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v45/n10/abs/ng.2744.html"><span
style='color:#808285'>evolved from a common ancestor that lived 70,000 years
ago</span></a>, before the great expansion out of Africa. But the new results
suggest that this ancestral microbe was just 6,000 years old!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:19.5pt'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:black'>It’s not just the discrepancy that’s baffling. By
6,000 years ago, humans had already spread around the world, including all over
the Americas. The land bridge that connected Asia and North America had long
since flooded. And it would be several millennia before any Europeans sailed
across the Atlantic. So if tuberculosis originated in Africa, how did it get
into South America?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:19.5pt'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:black'>The team considered the possibilities. Maybe some animal rafted
across the ocean, taking the bacteria with it? Maybe some bird flew it over? Or
maybe, one of them suggested, seals carried it across. They’re
long-distance swimmers, they’re infected with a relative of<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><i>M.tuberculosis<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span></i>called <i>M.pinnipedii</i>, and
people often kill and eat them. But, come on. Seals? Seriously? “We had a
good laugh over that,” says Bos. “It seemed so silly.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:19.5pt'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:black'>Still, it was worth testing. The team compared the genomes of many
species of tuberculosis bacteria from a variety of animals—humans, cows,
chimpanzees, goats, seals, and more. And they found that the closest relatives
of the Peruvian strains weren’t the ones that infect today’s
humans… but the ones from seals. Seals! (No, not<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5251c0f26bb3f7b0479d228c/18-things-navy-seals-wont-leave-home-without.jpg"><span
style='color:#808285'>SEALs</span></a>. Or<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="http://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/79/285x214/69217_1.jpg"><span
style='color:#808285'>Seal</span></a>.<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinniped"><span style='color:#808285'>Seals</span></a>.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:19.5pt'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:black'>“We couldn’t believe that was what the data was
showing, but it was pretty clear,” says Bos. “I got the data and
sent a text message to Johannes Krause [the senior author], which just said:
Arf!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:19.5pt'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:black'>“This is a triumph of technical and analytical approaches,
and It also delivers a wonderfully unexpected result. It’s great
science!” says<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/med/research/tsm/microinfect/staff/pallen/"><span
style='color:#808285'>Mark Pallen</span></a><span class=apple-converted-space> </span>from
the University of Warwick.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:19.5pt'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:black'>Here’s what Bos thinks might have happened:<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><i>M.tuberculosis<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span></i>evolved in Africa and could have
made it into coastal populations of seals (actually, probably sea-lions).
That’s reasonable—these microbes are<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><i>really<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span></i>good at hopping between mammals,
as<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26868650"><span
style='color:#808285'>the furious debate around British badger culls</span></a>
attests to. It adapted to the seals, producing the lineage we know as<i>M.pinnipedii.</i><span
class=apple-converted-space> </span>It then spread throughout the southern
hemisphere in its new hosts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:19.5pt'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:black'>Eventually, some of these sick animals were killed by humans
living in coastal Peru. We know that many of these groups used seal hides in
funeral rituals. They ate seal meat as a regular part of their menu. They could
have caught tuberculosis through these practices. If this sounds implausible,
note that seals in zoos have passed<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><i>M.pinnipedii<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span></i>to people before. And some
archaeologists have actually speculated that coastal people who hunted and
maybe even farmed seals might have caught tuberculosis from them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:19.5pt'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:black'>The team’s discovery may help to explain some uncertainty
around the smudgy history of tuberculosis in the Americas. Scientists used to
think that European colonists brought the disease over, since strains that
currently circulate in the New World are closely related to European ones. But
once they started finding very old skeletons with signs of infection, they knew
this couldn’t be right. And in 1994, one team recovered<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><i>M.tuberculosis</i><span
class=apple-converted-space> </span>DNA<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/08/20/seals-may-have-carried-tuberculosis-to-the-new-world/The%20existence%20of%20tuberculosis%20in%20the%20pre-Columbian%20Americas%20is%20controversial%20because%20the%20morphology%20of%20the%20lesion%20is%20not%20specific,%20the%20organism%20is%20culturally%20nonviable%20in%20ancient%20tissues,%20and%20nonpathogenic%20soil%20mycobacteria%20can%20contaminate%20buried%20bodies.%20W"><span
style='color:#808285'>from a thousand-year-old Peruvian mummy</span></a>. The<span
class=apple-converted-space><i> </i></span>microbe<span
class=apple-converted-space><i> </i></span>was clearly in the Americas
long before Europeans were.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:19.5pt'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:black'>Could seals have been responsible for this early foothold?
“It would be quite a brave extrapolation to make at this stage,”
says<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="http://www.ls.manchester.ac.uk/people/profile/?personid=307"><span
style='color:#808285'>Terry Brown</span></a><span class=apple-converted-space> </span>from
the University of Manchester. It’s entirely possible that the seals are
red herrings, and some other animal that the team didn’t include in their
analysis brought tuberculosis to Peru. After all, they only looked at the
genomes of 14 animal strains. “They are just scratching the surface of
mycobacterium diversity,” says<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="https://www.anthropology.mcmaster.ca/faculty-1/poinarh"><span
style='color:#808285'>Hendrik Poinar</span></a><span
class=apple-converted-space> </span>from McMaster University. “There
could be plenty of strains from other animals that will fall closer than
seals.” The seal story is plausible, but that doesn’t mean
it’s right.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:19.5pt'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:black'>Even if seals were involved, it’s unclear how often they
passed tuberculosis to people, or what happened afterwards. Their strains could
have jumped from person to person and swept the Americas. Or they could have
infected those three unfortunate Peruvians and no one else. “[This could
have been] just a one-off zoonotic episode, restricted in time and space,
leaving the majority of Pre-Columbia tuberculosis in the Americas
unexplained,” says Pallen.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:19.5pt'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:black'>Bos agrees. “These three might just have eaten sick seals,
got the infection and died, without transmitting it to their peers.” To
show human-to-human transmission, the team would need to find similar strains
of<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><i>M.tuberculosis<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span></i>in skeletons from inland
archaeological sites, where people didn’t have direct contact with seals.
They’re working on that.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:19.5pt'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:black'>Meanwhile, Brown adds that transmission-by-seal isn’t
actually the most important bit of the study. He’s more captivated by the
suggestion that tuberculosis is just 6,000 years old, rather than 70,000 as
previously suggested.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:19.5pt'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:black'>“These dates are worked out by measuring the amount of
genetic diversity among all known strains of TB bacteria, and then using a
molecular clock – based on the rate at which genetic changes occur during
evolution – to work out how much time was needed for all that diversity
to evolve,” explains Brown. “To do this, the molecular clock has to
be calibrated—we need to know how rapidly the genetic changes accumulated
in the past.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:19.5pt'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:black'>The earlier study calibrated their clock using imprecise figures,
based on estimates of when humans spread through the world. Bos’s team
(which actually includes six authors from the previous work) calibrated<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><i>their<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span></i>clock using one of their
skeletons. Thanks to carbon-dating, they knew that it was between 1,000 and
1,200 years old. They could work out how much the bacteria have changed since
then, and how much time they needed to evolve before. Hence: 6,000 years.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:19.5pt'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:black'>If that estimate is right, it would totally refute the idea that
tuberculosis evolved when we were still confined to Africa, and diversified
with us as we colonised the world. Instead, it arose when that worldwide spread
was already mostly complete.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:19.5pt'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:black'>Of course, they could be wrong. Pallen says that the study
doesn’t explain why another group found signs of tuberculosis in a<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0041923"><span
style='color:#808285'>17,000-year-old bison from North America. <span
class=apple-converted-space> </span></span></a>Brown adds, “They had
to make certain assumptions about the way in which tuberculosis bacteria
evolve, and those assumptions might not be entirely secure. We definitely need
more ancient<i>Mycobacterium</i><span class=apple-converted-space> </span>genome
sequences, for example from Europe or Asia, and from different time periods, to
check this result.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:19.5pt'><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:black'>“The study of ancient DNA [will] continue to contribute
significantly to filling gaps in our knowledge of tuberculosis, a devastating
disease today that still kills many thousands of people each year,” says<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/?id=163"><span style='color:#808285'>Charlotte
Roberts</span></a><span class=apple-converted-space> </span>from Durham
University.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:19.5pt'><b><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:black'>Reference:</span></b><span class=apple-converted-space><span
style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'> </span></span><span
style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black'>Bos, Harkins, Herbig,
Coscolla, Weber, Comas, Forrest, Bryant, Harris, Schuenemann, Campbell,
Majander, Wilbur, Guichon, Wolfe Steadman, Collins Cook, Niemann, Behr,
Zumarraga, Bastida, Huson, Niesell, Young, Parkhill, Buikstra, Gagneux, Stone
& Krause. 2014. Pre-Columbian mycobacterial genomes reveal seals as a
source of New World human tuberculosis. Nature<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1038/nature13591"><span style='color:#808285'>http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1038/nature13591</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='line-height:19.5pt'><b><span style='font-family:"Georgia","serif";
color:black'> /////////////////////////////////////////<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i>Nature </i>(2014)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>doi:10.1038/nature13591<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Published online 20 August 2014<o:p></o:p></p>
<h1 style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:15.0pt;
margin-left:0in'><span style='font-size:8.0pt;color:#222222;letter-spacing:
-.4pt;font-weight:normal'><o:p> </o:p></span></h1>
<h1 style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:15.0pt;
margin-left:0in'><span style='font-size:22.0pt;color:#222222;letter-spacing:
-.4pt;font-weight:normal'>Pre-Columbian mycobacterial genomes reveal seals as a
source of New World human tuberculosis<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:0in;text-align:justify;text-indent:-.25in;
mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><b><a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#auth-1"><span
class=fn><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>Kirsten I. Bos</span></span></a><span
class=comma>,</span> <a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#auth-2"><span
class=fn><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>Kelly M. Harkins</span></span></a><span
class=comma>,</span> <a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#auth-3"><span
class=fn><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>Alexander Herbig</span></span></a><span
class=comma>,</span> <a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#auth-4"><span
class=fn><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>Mireia Coscolla</span></span></a><span
class=comma>,</span> <a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#auth-5"><span
class=fn><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>Nico Weber</span></span></a><span
class=comma>,</span> <a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#auth-6"><span
class=fn><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>Iñaki Comas</span></span></a><span
class=comma>,</span> <a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#auth-7"><span
class=fn><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>Stephen A. Forrest</span></span></a><span
class=comma>,</span> <a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#auth-8"><span
class=fn><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>Josephine M. Bryant</span></span></a><span
class=comma>,</span> <a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#auth-9"><span
class=fn><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>Simon R. Harris</span></span></a><span
class=comma>,</span> <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:0in;text-align:justify;text-indent:-.25in;
mso-list:l2 level1 lfo3'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><b><a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#auth-10"><span
class=fn><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>Verena J. Schuenemann</span></span></a><span
class=comma>,</span> <a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#auth-11"><span
class=fn><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>Tessa J. Campbell</span></span></a><span
class=comma>,</span> <a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#auth-12"><span
class=fn><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>Kerrtu Majander</span></span></a><span
class=comma>,</span> <a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#auth-13"><span
class=fn><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>Alicia K. Wilbur</span></span></a><span
class=comma>,</span> <a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#auth-14"><span
class=fn><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>Ricardo A. Guichon</span></span></a><span
class=comma>,</span><a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#auth-15"><span
class=fn><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>Dawnie L. Wolfe
Steadman</span></span></a><span class=comma>,</span> <a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#auth-16"><span
class=fn><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>Della Collins Cook</span></span></a><span
class=comma>,</span> <a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#auth-17"><span
class=fn><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>Stefan Niemann</span></span></a><span
class=comma>,</span> <a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#auth-18"><span
class=fn><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>Marcel A. Behr</span></span></a><span
class=comma>,</span> <a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#auth-19"><span
class=fn><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>Martin Zumarraga</span></span></a><span
class=comma>,</span> <a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#auth-20"><span
class=fn><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>Ricardo Bastida</span></span></a><span
class=comma>,</span> <a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#auth-21"><span
class=fn><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>Daniel Huson</span></span></a><span
class=comma>,</span> <a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#auth-22"><span
class=fn><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>Kay Nieselt</span></span></a><span
class=comma>,</span> <a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#auth-23"><span
class=fn><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>Douglas Young</span></span></a><span
class=comma>,</span> <a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#auth-24"><span
class=fn><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>Julian Parkhill</span></span></a><span
class=comma>,</span><a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#auth-25"><span
class=fn><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>Jane E. Buikstra</span></span></a>
<a href="javascript:;"><i><span style='color:#5C7996;background:white;
text-decoration:none'>et al.</span></i></a></b> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:17.95pt;background:
white'><b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#707070'>Department of Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen,
Ruemelinstraße 23, 72070 Tübingen, Germany</span></b><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Kirsten
I. Bos,</span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#333333'> </span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#333333'>Alexander Herbig, Stephen A. Forrest, Verena J. Schuenemann, Kerrtu
Majander & Johannes Krause </span><b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#707070'>School of Human Evolution and
Social Change, Arizona State University, PO Box 872402, Tempe, Arizona
85287-2402, USA </span></b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#333333'>Kelly M. Harkins, </span><span style='font-size:10.5pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'> </span><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Alicia
K. Wilbur, Jane E. Buikstra & Anne C. Stone </span><b><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#707070'>Center
for Bioinformatics, University of Tübingen, Sand 14, 72076 Tübingen,
Germany </span></b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#333333'>Alexander Herbig, Nico Weber, Daniel Huson & Kay Nieselt </span><b><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#707070'>Department
of Medical Parasitology and Infection Biology, Swiss Tropical and Public Health
Institute, Socinstrasse 57, 4002 Basel, Switzerland </span></b><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Mireia
Coscolla & Sebastien Gagneux </span><b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#707070'>University of Basel,
Petersplatz 1, CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland </span></b><span style='font-size:
10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Mireia Coscolla & Sebastien
Gagneux </span><b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#707070'>Genomics and Health Unit, FISABIO-Public Health, Avenida
Cataluña 21, 46020 Valencia, Spain </span></b><span style='font-size:
10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Iñaki Comas </span><b><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#707070'>CIBER
(Centros de Investigación Biomédica en Red) in Epidemiology and
Public Health, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, C/ Monforte de Lemos 3-5,
Pabellón 11, Planta 0, 28029 Madrid, Spain </span></b><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Iñaki
Comas </span><b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#707070'>Pathogen Genomics, The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome
Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK </span></b><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Josephine
M. Bryant, Simon R. Harris & Julian Parkhill </span><b><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#707070'>Department
of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X1, Rondebosch, 7701,
South Africa </span></b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#333333'>Tessa J. Campbell </span><b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#707070'>CONICET, Laboratorio de
Ecología Evolutiva Humana (FACSO, UNCPBA), Departamento de
Biología (FCEyN, UNMDP), Calle 508 No. 881 (7631), Quequen, Argentina </span></b><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Ricardo
A. Guichon </span><b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#707070'>Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, 250 South
Stadium Hall, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA </span></b><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Dawnie
L. Wolfe Steadman </span><b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#707070'>Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, 701 East
Kirkwood Avenue, Bloomington, Indiana 47405-7100, USA </span></b><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Della
Collins Cook </span><b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#707070'>Molecular Mycobacteriology, Forschungszentrum Borstel, Parkallee
1, 23845 Borstel, Germany </span></b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:
"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Stefan Niemann </span><b><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#707070'>German
Center for Infection Research, Forschungszentrum Borstel, Parkallee 1, 23845
Borstel, Germany </span></b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#333333'>Stefan Niemann </span><b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#707070'>McGill International TB Centre,
McGill University, 1650 Cedar Avenue, Montreal H3G 1A4, Canada </span></b><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Marcel
A. Behr </span><b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#707070'>Biotechnology Institute, CICVyA-INTA Castelar, Dr.
Nicolás Repetto y De Los Reseros S/N, (B1686IGC) Hurlingham, Buenos
Aires, Argentina </span></b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#333333'>Martin Zumarraga </span><b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#707070'>Instituto de Investigaciones
Marinas y Costeras (CONICET-UNMdP), Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales,
Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, San Luis 1722, Mar del Plata 7600,
Argentina </span></b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#333333'>Ricardo Bastida </span><b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#707070'>Department of Medicine,
Imperial College, London W2 1PG, UK </span></b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Douglas Young </span><b><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#707070'>Division
of Mycobacterial Research, MRC National Institute for Medical Research, Mill
Hill, London NW7 1AA, UK </span></b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:
"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Douglas Young </span><b><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#707070'>Senckenberg
Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, University of Tübingen,
Tübingen 72070, Germany </span></b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Johannes Krause </span><b><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#707070'>Max
Planck Institute for Science and History, Khalaische Straße 10, 07745
Jena, Germany </span></b><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#333333'>Johannes Krause<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:15.0pt;
margin-left:0in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:15.0pt;
margin-left:0in;text-align:justify'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Modern
strains of<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><i>Mycobacterium
tuberculosis</i><span class=apple-converted-space> </span>from the
Americas are closely related to those from Europe, supporting the assumption
that human tuberculosis was introduced post-contact</span><sup><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#ref1"
title="Hershberg, R. et al. High functional diversity in Mycobacterium tuberculosis driven by genetic drift and human demography. PLoS Biol. 6, e311 (2008)"
id=ref-link-3><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>1</span></a></span></sup><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>. This notion, however, is
incompatible with archaeological evidence of pre-contact tuberculosis in the
New World</span><sup><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#ref2"
title="Roberts, C. A. & Buikstra, J. E. The Bioarchaeology of Tuberculosis. A Global View on a Reemerging Disease 187-213 (Univ. Press of Florida, 2003)"
id=ref-link-4><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>2</span></a></span></sup><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>. Comparative genomics of modern
isolates suggests that<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><i>M.
tuberculosis</i><span class=apple-converted-space> </span>attained its
worldwide distribution following human dispersals out of Africa during the
Pleistocene epoch</span><sup><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13591.html#ref3"
title="Comas, I. et al. Out-of-Africa migration and Neolithic coexpansion of Mycobacterium tuberculosis with modern humans. Nature Genet. 45, 1176-1182 (2013)"
id=ref-link-5><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'>3</span></a></span></sup><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>, although this has yet to be
confirmed with ancient calibration points. Here we present three 1,000-year-old
mycobacterial genomes from Peruvian human skeletons, revealing that a member of
the <i>M. tuberculosis</i><span class=apple-converted-space> </span>complex
caused human disease before contact. The ancient strains are distinct from
known human-adapted forms and are most closely related to those adapted to
seals and sea lions. Two independent dating approaches suggest a most recent
common ancestor for the<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><i>M.
tuberculosis</i><span class=apple-converted-space> </span>complex less
than 6,000 years ago, which supports a Holocene dispersal of the disease. Our
results implicate sea mammals as having played a role in transmitting the
disease to humans across the ocean.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
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color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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