Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, UK.
Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark.
Nat Commun. 2022 Jul 6;13(1):3888. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-31487-x.
The neglected tropical disease trichuriasis is caused by the whipworm Trichuris trichiura, a soil-transmitted helminth that has infected humans for millennia. Today, T. trichiura infects as many as 500 million people, predominantly in communities with poor sanitary infrastructure enabling sustained faecal-oral transmission. Using whole-genome sequencing of geographically distributed worms collected from human and other primate hosts, together with ancient samples preserved in archaeologically-defined latrines and deposits dated up to one thousand years old, we present the first population genomics study of T. trichiura. We describe the continent-scale genetic structure between whipworms infecting humans and baboons relative to those infecting other primates. Admixture and population demographic analyses support a stepwise distribution of genetic variation that is highest in Uganda, consistent with an African origin and subsequent translocation with human migration. Finally, genome-wide analyses between human samples and between human and non-human primate samples reveal local regions of genetic differentiation between geographically distinct populations. These data provide insight into zoonotic reservoirs of human-infective T. trichiura and will support future efforts toward the implementation of genomic epidemiology of this globally important helminth.
被忽视的热带病鞭虫病是由鞭虫 Trichuris trichiura 引起的，这是一种土壤传播的寄生虫，已经感染人类数千年了。今天，多达 5 亿人感染了鞭虫，主要是在卫生基础设施较差的社区，这些社区有利于粪便-口腔传播的持续发生。我们使用来自人类和其他灵长类动物宿主的地理分布的蠕虫的全基因组测序，以及在考古定义的厕所和可追溯到一千年前的沉积物中保存的古代样本，对 T. trichiura 进行了首次种群基因组学研究。我们描述了感染人类和狒狒的鞭虫与感染其他灵长类动物的鞭虫之间的大陆尺度遗传结构。混合和种群人口动态分析支持遗传变异的逐步分布，在乌干达最高，这与非洲起源和随后与人类迁移一起转移是一致的。最后，人类样本之间以及人类和非人类灵长类动物样本之间的全基因组分析揭示了地理上不同的人群之间遗传分化的局部区域。这些数据提供了对人类感染性 T. trichiura 的人畜共患病宿主的深入了解，并将支持未来努力实施这种具有全球重要性的寄生虫的基因组流行病学。
