The bacterium responsible for syphilis was present in Indigenous American populations dating back thousands of years

Amazing stuff! The pre-Columbian hypothesis won!

"In 1494, just a year after Christopher Columbus returned to Europe from the Americas, the first recorded outbreak of the sexually transmitted disease syphilis occurred, sweeping through French King Charles VIII’s mercenary army as it invaded Italy. Ever since, scientists and historians have contentiously debated the disease’s origin: Did it arise in the Americas and travel to Europe following Columbus’ voyage, or was it already present in Europe?

Scholars have gone back and forth over the centuries, but a study of ancient DNA out this week in Nature finds that the bacterium responsible for syphilis, Treponema pallidum, was present in Indigenous American populations dating back thousands of years. While the bacterium’s DNA doesn’t precisely match the modern syphilitic strain, researchers are confident they’ve found its predecessor. ...

The afflicted were usually eager to blame it on rival nations: The English called it the French pox, Polish physicians called it the German disease, and Turkish doctors pinned its origins on Christians. By 1530, Europeans were speculating it might have been an import from the Americas, associating its sexually transmitted spread with inaccurate, racist notions of lascivious Native lifestyles. ..."

From the abstract:

"Human treponemal infections are caused by a family of closely related Treponema pallidum that give rise to the diseases yaws, bejel, pinta and, most famously, syphilis. Debates on both a common origin for these pathogens and the history of syphilis itself has weighed evidence for the “Columbian hypothesis”, which argues for an American origin, against that for the “pre-Columbian hypothesis”, which argues for presence of the disease in Eurasia in the Medieval period and possibly earlier. While molecular data has provided a genetic basis for distinction of the typed subspecies, deep evolution of the complex has remained unresolved due to limitations in the conclusions that can be drawn from the sparse paleogenomic data currently available. Here we explore this evolutionary history through analyses of five pre- and peri-contact ancient treponemal genomes from the Americas that represent ancient relatives of the T. pallidum pallidum (syphilis), T. pallidum pertenue (yaws) and T. pallidum endemicum (bejel) lineages. Our data indicate unexplored diversity and an emergence of T. pallidum that post-dates human occupation in the Americas. Together these results support an American origin for all T. pallidum characterized at the genomic level, both modern and ancient."

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Syphilis microbe circulated in the Americas thousands of years before European contact

Ancient genomes reveal a deep history of treponemal disease in the Americas (no public access)