So were the conquistadors actually infected by indigenous women not vice versa? (Caution: Facetious question)
"Researchers at the Universities of Basel and Zurich have discovered the genetic material of the pathogen Treponema pallidum in the bones of people who died in Brazil 2,000 years ago. This is the oldest verified discovery of this pathogen thus far, and it proves that humans were suffering from diseases akin to syphilis—known as treponematoses—long before Columbus's discovery of America. ...
The researchers used dentists' drilling tools to remove minuscule samples of bone under sterile conditions. From those samples they isolated prehistoric genetic material (ancient DNA) belonging to the syphilis pathogen. Their study demonstrates that all the bacterial genomes that have been investigated can be attributed to the Treponema pallidum endemicum strain—that is, the pathogen that leads to bejel. ...
Intense debates are still ongoing today among specialists and medical historians concerning whether Christopher Columbus's sailors and soldiers brought sexually transmitted syphilis from the New World to the Old upon their return in 1492. The illness spread rapidly from the end of the 15th century onwards, particularly in harbor towns. ...
The DNA comparison also allows the date of the Treponema pallidum family's emergence to be deduced. The team's investigations show that these pathogens arose at some point between 12,000 and 550 BCE. The history of these pathogens therefore stretches much further back than previously assumed. ..."
From the abstract:
"The origins of treponemal diseases have long remained unknown, especially considering the sudden onset of the first syphilis epidemic in the late 15th century in Europe and its hypothesized arrival from the Americas with Columbus’ expeditions. Recently, ancient DNA evidence has revealed various treponemal infections circulating in early modern Europe and colonial-era Mexico. However, there has been to our knowledge no genomic evidence of treponematosis recovered from either the Americas or the Old World that can be reliably dated to the time before the first trans-Atlantic contacts. Here, we present treponemal genomes from nearly 2,000-year-old human remains from Brazil. We reconstruct four ancient genomes of a prehistoric treponemal pathogen, most closely related to the bejel-causing agent Treponema pallidum endemicum. Contradicting the modern day geographical niche of bejel in the arid regions of the world, the results call into question the previous palaeopathological characterization of treponeme subspecies and showcase their adaptive potential. A high-coverage genome is used to improve molecular clock date estimations, placing the divergence of modern T. pallidum subspecies firmly in pre-Columbian times. Overall, our study demonstrates the opportunities within archaeogenetics to uncover key events in pathogen evolution and emergence, paving the way to new hypotheses on the origin and spread of treponematoses."
Syphilis-like diseases were already widespread in America before the arrival of Columbus (University of Basel)
Professor Verena Schünemann isolates ancient DNA in the laboratory.
Fig. 1: The archaeological site and the T. pallidum-positive samples that yielded the reconstructed genomes.
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