Ancient-Pathogen Genomics: Coming of Age?

ABSTRACT The potentially debilitating zoonotic disease brucellosis is thought to have been a scourge of mankind throughout history. New work by Kay et al. [mBio 5(4):e01337-14, 2014] adds to evidence for this by exploiting the huge advances in next-generation sequencing technology and applying shotg...

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Autor principal: Adrian M. Whatmore
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Publicado: American Society for Microbiology 2014
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:ed229b09f2bb431db9d1bf87587d45ba2021-11-15T15:45:55ZAncient-Pathogen Genomics: Coming of Age?10.1128/mBio.01676-142150-7511https://doaj.org/article/ed229b09f2bb431db9d1bf87587d45ba2014-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mBio.01676-14https://doaj.org/toc/2150-7511ABSTRACT The potentially debilitating zoonotic disease brucellosis is thought to have been a scourge of mankind throughout history. New work by Kay et al. [mBio 5(4):e01337-14, 2014] adds to evidence for this by exploiting the huge advances in next-generation sequencing technology and applying shotgun metagenomics to a calcified nodule obtained from a 14th-century skeleton from Sardinia. While not the first DNA-based confirmation of Brucella in medieval DNA samples, Kay et al.’s study goes much further than previous reports based on single gene fragments in that it allows a full-genome reconstruction and thus facilitates meaningful comparative analysis of relationships with extant Brucella strains. These analyses confirm the close relationship of the genome to contemporary isolates from the western Mediterranean, illustrating the continuity of this lineage in the region over centuries. The study, along with recent studies characterizing other ancient-pathogen genomes, confirms that shotgun metagenomics offers us a powerful tool to fully characterize pathogens from ancient samples. Such studies promise to revolutionize our understanding of the nature of infectious disease in these materials and of the wider picture of the emergence, evolution, and spread of bacterial pathogens over history.Adrian M. WhatmoreAmerican Society for MicrobiologyarticleMicrobiologyQR1-502ENmBio, Vol 5, Iss 5 (2014)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Microbiology
QR1-502
spellingShingle Microbiology
QR1-502
Adrian M. Whatmore
Ancient-Pathogen Genomics: Coming of Age?
description ABSTRACT The potentially debilitating zoonotic disease brucellosis is thought to have been a scourge of mankind throughout history. New work by Kay et al. [mBio 5(4):e01337-14, 2014] adds to evidence for this by exploiting the huge advances in next-generation sequencing technology and applying shotgun metagenomics to a calcified nodule obtained from a 14th-century skeleton from Sardinia. While not the first DNA-based confirmation of Brucella in medieval DNA samples, Kay et al.’s study goes much further than previous reports based on single gene fragments in that it allows a full-genome reconstruction and thus facilitates meaningful comparative analysis of relationships with extant Brucella strains. These analyses confirm the close relationship of the genome to contemporary isolates from the western Mediterranean, illustrating the continuity of this lineage in the region over centuries. The study, along with recent studies characterizing other ancient-pathogen genomes, confirms that shotgun metagenomics offers us a powerful tool to fully characterize pathogens from ancient samples. Such studies promise to revolutionize our understanding of the nature of infectious disease in these materials and of the wider picture of the emergence, evolution, and spread of bacterial pathogens over history.
format article
author Adrian M. Whatmore
author_facet Adrian M. Whatmore
author_sort Adrian M. Whatmore
title Ancient-Pathogen Genomics: Coming of Age?
title_short Ancient-Pathogen Genomics: Coming of Age?
title_full Ancient-Pathogen Genomics: Coming of Age?
title_fullStr Ancient-Pathogen Genomics: Coming of Age?
title_full_unstemmed Ancient-Pathogen Genomics: Coming of Age?
title_sort ancient-pathogen genomics: coming of age?
publisher American Society for Microbiology
publishDate 2014
url https://doaj.org/article/ed229b09f2bb431db9d1bf87587d45ba
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