ArticlePLoS pathogens2018
Ancient genomes reveal a high diversity of Mycobacterium leprae in medieval Europe.
Article in PLoS pathogens, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 56 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
56 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Leprosy in skeletons from archaeological sites: A systematic review.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2025Pooled it
- Reservoirs and transmission routes of leprosy; A systematic review.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2020Pooled it
- Ancient DNA and Human Physiology.Physiology (Bethesda, Md.) · 2026Review
- Ancient Mycobacterium leprae genomes reveal a potential origin and dispersal of the ancestral Branch 0.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Recovery and analysis of ancient DNA: challenges, methods, and applications in forensic and archaeological science.Journal, genetic engineering & biotechnology · 2026Article
- Insights into infectious diseases through ancient pathogen genomics.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- Analysis of medieval burials from Ibiza reveals genetic and pathogenic diversity during the Islamic period.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Ancient DNA study provides clues to leprosy susceptibility in medieval Europe.Genome biology · 2026Article
- British Red Squirrels (Interdisciplinary perspectives on infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Ancient DNA insights into diverse pathogens and their hosts.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2026Review
- The role of red squirrels in leprosy dynamics in the United Kingdom: a critical review.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2025Article
- Echoes of 1816: microbial footprints in heritage artifacts from Argentina's museum of independence.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Leprosy.Nature reviews. Disease primers · 2024Review
- Article
- Equine herpesvirus 4 infected domestic horses associated with Sintashta spoke-wheeled chariots around 4,000 years ago.Virus evolution · 2024Article
- Pathogen genomics study of an early medieval community in Germany reveals extensive co-infections.Genome biology · 2022Article
- Pathogenicity and virulence ofVirulence · 2022Review
- A Timeframe for SARS-CoV-2 Genomes: A Proof of Concept for Postmortem Interval Estimations.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Historic and Prehistoric Epidemics: An Overview of Sources Available for the Study of Ancient Pathogens.Epidemiologia (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Stone AgeProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
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30 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Studying ancient DNA allows us to retrace the evolutionary history of human pathogens, such as Mycobacterium leprae, the main causative agent of leprosy. Leprosy is one of the oldest recorded and most stigmatizing diseases in human history. The disease was prevalent in Europe until the 16th century and is still endemic in many countries with over 200,000 new cases reported annually. Previous worldwide studies on modern and European medieval M. leprae genomes revealed that they cluster into several distinct branches of which two were present in medieval Northwestern Europe. In this study, we analyzed 10 new medieval M. leprae genomes including the so far oldest M. leprae genome from one of the earliest known cases of leprosy in the United Kingdom-a skeleton from the Great Chesterford cemetery with a calibrated age of 415-545 C.E. This dataset provides a genetic time transect of M. leprae diversity in Europe over the past 1500 years. We find M. leprae strains from four distinct branches to be present in the Early Medieval Period, and strains from three different branches were detected within a single cemetery from the High Medieval Period. Altogether these findings suggest a higher genetic diversity of M. leprae strains in medieval Europe at various time points than previously assumed. The resulting more complex picture of the past phylogeography of leprosy in Europe impacts current phylogeographical models of M. leprae dissemination. It suggests alternative models for the past spread of leprosy such as a wide spread prevalence of strains from different branches in Eurasia already in Antiquity or maybe even an origin in Western Eurasia. Furthermore, these results highlight how studying ancient M. leprae strains improves understanding the history of leprosy worldwide.
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