ArticleGenome biology2022
Pathogen genomics study of an early medieval community in Germany reveals extensive co-infections.
Article in Genome biology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Leprosy in skeletons from archaeological sites: A systematic review.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2025Pooled it
- Ancient DNA and Human Physiology.Physiology (Bethesda, Md.) · 2026Review
- 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
- Recent Microbial Evolutionary Insights From Metagenomics.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Review
- Ancient DNA study provides clues to leprosy susceptibility in medieval Europe.Genome biology · 2026Article
- Article
- The outcasts, the sick, and the undead: atypical burials of the late medieval to modern greater Poland.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Echoes of 1816: microbial footprints in heritage artifacts from Argentina's museum of independence.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Five centuries of consanguinity, isolation, health, and conflict in Las Gobas: A Northern Medieval Iberian necropolis.Science advances · 2024Article
- Neolithic Yersinia pestis infections in humans and a dog.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Capturing the fusion of two ancestries and kinship structures in Merovingian Flanders.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Identification of DNA Viruses in Ancient DNA from Herbarium Samples.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2024Article
- Paleomicrobiology: Tracking the past microbial life from single species to entire microbial communities.Microbial biotechnology · 2024Review
- Bioarchaeological and paleogenomic profiling of the unusual Neolithic burial from Grotta di Pietra Sant'Angelo (Calabria, Italy).Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Current allele distribution of the human longevity gene APOE in Europe can mainly be explained by ancient admixture.Aging cell · 2023Article
- Pathogen genomics study of an early medieval community in Germany reveals extensive co-infections.Genome biology · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
16 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
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Abstract
backgroundThe pathogen landscape in the Early European Middle Ages remains largely unexplored. Here, we perform a systematic pathogen screening of the rural community Lauchheim "Mittelhofen," in present-day Germany, dated to the Merovingian period, between fifth and eighth century CE. Skeletal remains of individuals were subjected to an ancient DNA metagenomic analysis. Genomes of the detected pathogens were reconstructed and analyzed phylogenetically.
resultsOver 30% of the individuals exhibit molecular signs of infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV), parvovirus B19, variola virus (VARV), and Mycobacterium leprae. Seven double and one triple infection were detected. We reconstructed four HBV genomes and one genome each of B19, VARV, and M. leprae. All HBV genomes are of genotype D4 which is rare in Europe today. The VARV strain exhibits a unique pattern of gene loss indicating that viruses with different gene compositions were circulating in the Early Middle Ages. The M. leprae strain clustered in branch 3 together with the oldest to-date genome from the UK.
conclusionsThe high burden of infectious disease, together with osteological markers of physiological stress, reflect a poor health status of the community. This could have been an indirect result of the climate decline in Europe at the time, caused by the Late Antique Little Ice Age (LALIA). Our findings suggest that LALIA may have created an ecological context in which persistent outbreaks set the stage for major epidemics of severe diseases such as leprosy and smallpox hundreds of years later.
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