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Landmark DNA Study Maps 37,000 Years of Zoonotic Disease Emergence
EURASIA, JUL 09 – The study recovered DNA from 214 pathogens and traced ancient zoonotic diseases back 6,500 years, offering insights important for vaccine development and disease mutation understanding.
- Researchers led by Eske Willerslev analyzed ancient DNA from 279 human remains over 37,000 years across Eurasia, identifying 214 pathogens including plague bacteria.
- This study reveals that diseases transmitted from animals to humans became prominent roughly six and a half millennia ago, aligning with the advent of agriculture and increased interaction between people and domesticated animals, marking a crucial shift in human disease history.
- The study found that domesticating animals increased zoonotic transmission risk, causing diseases like plague to kill large numbers of European farmers lacking disease resistance.
- Willerslev emphasized that the impact of the agricultural revolution continues today, as ancient pathogens that emerged during that period still affect millions of people worldwide.
- The findings suggest past successful mutations inform future vaccine development and that ancient pathogens continue influencing human health and emerging infectious diseases today.
9 Articles
9 Articles
A new study has found the earliest examples of diseases transmitted from animals to humans. This knowledge could have implications for the development of vaccines in the future.
Largest study of ancient DNA traces infectious diseases through history
A research team led by Eske Willerslev, professor at the University of Copenhagen and the University of Cambridge, has recovered ancient DNA from 214 known human pathogens in prehistoric humans from Eurasia.
The spatiotemporal distribution of human pathogens in ancient Eurasia
Infectious diseases have had devastating effects on human populations throughout history, but important questions about their origins and past dynamics remain1. To create an archaeogenetic-based spatiotemporal map of human pathogens, we screened shotgun-sequencing data from 1,313 ancient humans covering 37,000 years of Eurasian history. We demonstrate the widespread presence of ancient bacterial, viral and parasite DNA, identifying 5,486 individ…
A New Genetic Map of Human Disease for the Past 37,000 Years
Carl Zimmer writes about the results of a new genetic study of humans and the diseases that afflicted us over the past 37,000 years. It’s a really fascinating read — in part because of how scientific results can defy our expectations. For instance, the researchers expected to find the plague when people first started domesticating animals 11,000 years ago. But they didn’t: But the ancient DNA defied that expectation. The scientists found that pl…
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