Light-Maka Ian, Hermes Taylor R, Bianco Raffaela Angelina, Semerau Lena, Kosintsev Pavel, Alekseeva Valeriia, Kim Donghee, Hanage William P, Herbig Alexander, Jeong Choongwon, Warinner Christina, Key Felix M
Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin 10117, Germany; Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin 10117, Germany.
Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04103, Germany; Department of Anthropology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72703, USA.
Cell. 2025 Aug 7. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.07.029.
Most human pathogens are of zoonotic origin. Many emerged during prehistory, coinciding with domestication providing more opportunities for spillover into human populations. However, we lack direct DNA evidence linking animal and human infections during prehistory. Here, we present a Yersinia pestis genome recovered from a 3rd-millennium BCE domesticated sheep from the Eurasian Steppe belonging to the Late Neolithic Bronze Age (LNBA) lineage, until now exclusively identified in ancient humans across Eurasia. We show that this ancient lineage underwent ancestral gene decay paralleling extant lineages, but evolved under distinct selective pressures, contributing to its lack of geographic differentiation. We collect evidence supporting a scenario where the LNBA lineage, unable to efficiently transmit via fleas, spread from an unidentified reservoir to sheep and likely other domesticates, elevating human infection risk. Collectively, our results connect prehistoric livestock with infectious disease in humans and showcase the power of moving paleomicrobiology into the zooarchaeological record.
大多数人类病原体都源自动物。许多病原体出现在史前时期，与驯化过程同时发生，这为病原体传播到人类群体提供了更多机会。然而，我们缺乏史前时期动物感染与人类感染之间的直接DNA证据。在此，我们展示了从公元前3000年欧亚草原的一只驯化绵羊身上恢复的鼠疫耶尔森菌基因组，该绵羊属于新石器时代晚期青铜时代（LNBA）谱系，到目前为止，该谱系仅在欧亚大陆的古代人类中被发现。我们表明，这个古老谱系经历了与现存谱系平行的祖先基因衰退，但在不同的选择压力下进化，导致其缺乏地理分化。我们收集的证据支持了这样一种情况，即LNBA谱系无法通过跳蚤有效传播，它从未知宿主传播到绵羊以及可能的其他家畜身上，从而增加了人类感染风险。总体而言，我们的研究结果将史前牲畜与人类传染病联系起来，并展示了将古微生物学引入动物考古记录的作用。
