January 08, 2016

Helicobacter pylori in the Iceman

Science 8 January 2016:
Vol. 351 no. 6269 pp. 162-165

The 5300-year-old Helicobacter pylori genome of the Iceman
Frank Maixner1,*,†, Ben Krause-Kyora2,†, Dmitrij Turaev3,†, Alexander Herbig4,5, et al.

The stomach bacterium Helicobacter pylori is one of the most prevalent human pathogens. It has dispersed globally with its human host, resulting in a distinct phylogeographic pattern that can be used to reconstruct both recent and ancient human migrations. The extant European population of H. pylori is known to be a hybrid between Asian and African bacteria, but there exist different hypotheses about when and where the hybridization took place, reflecting the complex demographic history of Europeans. Here, we present a 5300-year-old H. pylori genome from a European Copper Age glacier mummy. The “Iceman” H. pylori is a nearly pure representative of the bacterial population of Asian origin that existed in Europe before hybridization, suggesting that the African population arrived in Europe within the past few thousand years.

Link

6 comments:

Alexandros said...

Extremely interesting! Confirms once more the west Asian (Near Eastern) origin of the Iceman. I wonder when the African H.Pylori strains entered Europe. Probably during Roman times, or later during the Arab conquests in Southern Europe?

Shankar Banjara said...

Oh yes, Helicobacter pylori is one of the most prevalent human pathogens thanks for sharing such information love to read and know about on your post

Alashire said...

think the first Jihad and a few hundred years ! you all like the word thousands and don't have a clue about real history, so you make the the rest ? what they didn't tell you in school so watch to the end!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_Qpy0mXg8Y

Ross said...

Just wondering if the text "suggesting that the African population arrived in Europe within the past few thousand years." is compatible with your previous comment (Jan 6) that '"Neolithization of Europe" remains "done".' Or does the African ingression relate to a different phase of history?

Dienekes said...

The African population of H. pylori

bmdriver said...

The first migrants into Europe where south Asians, then a second migration from North East Africa, could these migrants be from the back migration into Africa itself?