Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

Tuberculosis (TB) was once a major killer in Europe, but it is unclear how the strains and patterns of infection at 'peak TB' relate to what we see today. Here we describe 14 genome sequences of M. tuberculosis, representing 12 distinct genotypes, obtained from human remains from eighteenth-century Hungary using metagenomics. All our historic genotypes belong to M. tuberculosis Lineage 4. Bayesian phylogenetic dating, based on samples with well-documented dates, places the most recent common ancestor of this lineage in the late Roman period. We find that most bodies yielded more than one M. tuberculosis genotype and we document an intimate epidemiological link between infections in two long-dead individuals. Our results suggest that metagenomic approaches usefully inform detection and characterization of historical and contemporary infections.

Original publication

DOI

10.1038/ncomms7717

Type

Journal article

Journal

Nature communications

Publication Date

07/04/2015

Volume

6

Addresses

Microbiology and Infection Unit, Division of Translational and Systems Medicine, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.

Keywords

Humans, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Tuberculosis, DNA, Bacterial, Bayes Theorem, Phylogeny, Genotype, Genome, Bacterial, History, 18th Century, Adult, Middle Aged, Europe, Hungary, Female, Male, Young Adult, Molecular Epidemiology, Metagenomics, Coinfection