Sikora Martin, Canteri Elisabetta, Fernandez-Guerra Antonio, Oskolkov Nikolay, Ågren Rasmus, Hansson Lena, Irving-Pease Evan K, Mühlemann Barbara, Holtsmark Nielsen Sofie, Scorrano Gabriele, Allentoft Morten E, Valeur Seersholm Frederik, Schroeder Hannes, Gaunitz Charleen, Stenderup Jesper, Vinner Lasse, Jones Terry C, Nystedt Björn, Sjögren Karl-Göran, Parkhill Julian, Fugger Lars, Racimo Fernando, Kristiansen Kristian, Iversen Astrid K N, Willerslev Eske
Centre for Ancient Environmental Genomics and The Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Section for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Nature. 2025 Jul;643(8073):1011-1019. doi: 10.1038/s41586-025-09192-8. Epub 2025 Jul 9.
Infectious diseases have had devastating effects on human populations throughout history, but important questions about their origins and past dynamics remain. To create an archaeogenetic-based spatiotemporal map of human pathogens, we screened shotgun-sequencing data from 1,313 ancient humans covering 37,000 years of Eurasian history. We demonstrate the widespread presence of ancient bacterial, viral and parasite DNA, identifying 5,486 individual hits against 492 species from 136 genera. Among those hits, 3,384 involve known human pathogens, many of which had not previously been identified in ancient human remains. Grouping the ancient microbial species according to their likely reservoir and type of transmission, we find that most groups are identified throughout the entire sampling period. Zoonotic pathogens are only detected from around 6,500 years ago, peaking roughly 5,000 years ago, coinciding with the widespread domestication of livestock. Our findings provide direct evidence that this lifestyle change resulted in an increased infectious disease burden. They also indicate that the spread of these pathogens increased substantially during subsequent millennia, coinciding with the pastoralist migrations from the Eurasian Steppe.
在历史上，传染病对人类群体造成了毁灭性影响，但关于其起源和过去动态的重要问题仍然存在。为了创建基于古遗传学的人类病原体时空图谱，我们筛选了来自1313名古代人类的鸟枪法测序数据，这些数据涵盖了3.7万年的欧亚历史。我们证明了古代细菌、病毒和寄生虫DNA的广泛存在，鉴定出针对136个属492个物种的5486个单独命中。在这些命中中，3384个涉及已知的人类病原体，其中许多此前未在古代人类遗骸中被鉴定出来。根据其可能的宿主和传播类型对古代微生物物种进行分组，我们发现大多数组在整个采样期都能被鉴定出来。人畜共患病原体直到大约6500年前才被检测到，在大约5000年前达到峰值，这与牲畜的广泛驯化相吻合。我们的研究结果提供了直接证据，表明这种生活方式的改变导致了传染病负担的增加。它们还表明，在随后的几千年里，这些病原体的传播大幅增加，这与来自欧亚草原的牧民迁徙相吻合。
