ALBERT

Description: Leprosy was endemic in Europe until the Middle Ages. Using DNA array capture, we have obtained genome sequences of Mycobacterium leprae from skeletons of five medieval leprosy cases from the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Denmark. In one case, the DNA was so well preserved that full de novo assembly of the ancient bacterial genome could be achieved through shotgun sequencing alone. The ancient M. leprae sequences were compared with those of 11 modern strains, representing diverse genotypes and geographic origins. The comparisons revealed remarkable genomic conservation during the past 1000 years, a European origin for leprosy in the Americas, and the presence of an M. leprae genotype in medieval Europe now commonly associated with the Middle East. The exceptional preservation of M. leprae biomarkers, both DNA and mycolic acids, in ancient skeletons has major implications for palaeomicrobiology and human pathogen evolution.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Schuenemann, Verena J -- Singh, Pushpendra -- Mendum, Thomas A -- Krause-Kyora, Ben -- Jager, Gunter -- Bos, Kirsten I -- Herbig, Alexander -- Economou, Christos -- Benjak, Andrej -- Busso, Philippe -- Nebel, Almut -- Boldsen, Jesper L -- Kjellstrom, Anna -- Wu, Huihai -- Stewart, Graham R -- Taylor, G Michael -- Bauer, Peter -- Lee, Oona Y-C -- Wu, Houdini H T -- Minnikin, David E -- Besra, Gurdyal S -- Tucker, Katie -- Roffey, Simon -- Sow, Samba O -- Cole, Stewart T -- Nieselt, Kay -- Krause, Johannes -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2013 Jul 12;341(6142):179-83. doi: 10.1126/science.1238286. Epub 2013 Jun 13.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tubingen, 72070 Tubingen, Germany.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23765279" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Modern strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from the Americas are closely related to those from Europe, supporting the assumption that human tuberculosis was introduced post-contact. This notion, however, is incompatible with archaeological evidence of pre-contact tuberculosis in the New World. Comparative genomics of modern isolates suggests that M. tuberculosis attained its worldwide distribution following human dispersals out of Africa during the Pleistocene epoch, although this has yet to be confirmed with ancient calibration points. Here we present three 1,000-year-old mycobacterial genomes from Peruvian human skeletons, revealing that a member of the M. tuberculosis complex caused human disease before contact. The ancient strains are distinct from known human-adapted forms and are most closely related to those adapted to seals and sea lions. Two independent dating approaches suggest a most recent common ancestor for the M. tuberculosis complex less than 6,000 years ago, which supports a Holocene dispersal of the disease. Our results implicate sea mammals as having played a role in transmitting the disease to humans across the ocean.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4550673/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4550673/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Bos, Kirsten I -- Harkins, Kelly M -- Herbig, Alexander -- Coscolla, Mireia -- Weber, Nico -- Comas, Inaki -- Forrest, Stephen A -- Bryant, Josephine M -- Harris, Simon R -- Schuenemann, Verena J -- Campbell, Tessa J -- Majander, Kerttu -- Wilbur, Alicia K -- Guichon, Ricardo A -- Wolfe Steadman, Dawnie L -- Cook, Della Collins -- Niemann, Stefan -- Behr, Marcel A -- Zumarraga, Martin -- Bastida, Ricardo -- Huson, Daniel -- Nieselt, Kay -- Young, Douglas -- Parkhill, Julian -- Buikstra, Jane E -- Gagneux, Sebastien -- Stone, Anne C -- Krause, Johannes -- 098051/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- AI090928/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- MC_U117581288/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- R01 AI090928/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- England -- Nature. 2014 Oct 23;514(7523):494-7. doi: 10.1038/nature13591. Epub 2014 Aug 20.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉1] Department of Archaeological Sciences, University of Tubingen, Ruemelinstrasse 23, 72070 Tubingen, Germany [2]. ; 1] School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, PO Box 872402, Tempe, Arizona 85287-2402, USA [2]. ; 1] Department of Archaeological Sciences, University of Tubingen, Ruemelinstrasse 23, 72070 Tubingen, Germany [2] Center for Bioinformatics, University of Tubingen, Sand 14, 72076 Tubingen, Germany [3]. ; 1] Department of Medical Parasitology and Infection Biology, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Socinstrasse 57, 4002 Basel, Switzerland [2] University of Basel, Petersplatz 1, CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland [3]. ; Center for Bioinformatics, University of Tubingen, Sand 14, 72076 Tubingen, Germany. ; 1] Genomics and Health Unit, FISABIO-Public Health, Avenida Cataluna 21, 46020 Valencia, Spain [2] CIBER (Centros de Investigacion Biomedica en Red) in Epidemiology and Public Health, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, C/ Monforte de Lemos 3-5, Pabellon 11, Planta 0, 28029 Madrid, Spain. ; Department of Archaeological Sciences, University of Tubingen, Ruemelinstrasse 23, 72070 Tubingen, Germany. ; Pathogen Genomics, The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK. ; Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X1, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa. ; School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, PO Box 872402, Tempe, Arizona 85287-2402, USA. ; CONICET, Laboratorio de Ecologia Evolutiva Humana (FACSO, UNCPBA), Departamento de Biologia (FCEyN, UNMDP), Calle 508 No. 881 (7631), Quequen, Argentina. ; Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, 250 South Stadium Hall, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA. ; Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, 701 East Kirkwood Avenue, Bloomington, Indiana 47405-7100, USA. ; 1] Molecular Mycobacteriology, Forschungszentrum Borstel, Parkallee 1, 23845 Borstel, Germany [2] German Center for Infection Research, Forschungszentrum Borstel, Parkallee 1, 23845 Borstel, Germany. ; McGill International TB Centre, McGill University, 1650 Cedar Avenue, Montreal H3G 1A4, Canada. ; Biotechnology Institute, CICVyA-INTA Castelar, Dr. Nicolas Repetto y De Los Reseros S/N, (B1686IGC) Hurlingham, Buenos Aires, Argentina. ; Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (CONICET-UNMdP), Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, San Luis 1722, Mar del Plata 7600, Argentina. ; 1] Department of Medicine, Imperial College, London W2 1PG, UK [2] Division of Mycobacterial Research, MRC National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA, UK. ; 1] Department of Medical Parasitology and Infection Biology, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Socinstrasse 57, 4002 Basel, Switzerland [2] University of Basel, Petersplatz 1, CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland. ; 1] Department of Archaeological Sciences, University of Tubingen, Ruemelinstrasse 23, 72070 Tubingen, Germany [2] Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, University of Tubingen, Tubingen 72070, Germany [3] Max Planck Institute for Science and History, Khalaische Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25141181" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Motivation: The number of completely sequenced genomes is continuously rising, allowing for comparative analyses of genomic variation. Such analyses are often based on whole-genome alignments to elucidate structural differences arising from insertions, deletions or from rearrangement events. Computational tools that can visualize genome alignments in a meaningful manner are needed to help researchers gain new insights into the underlying data. Such visualizations typically are either realized in a linear fashion as in genome browsers or by using a circular approach, where relationships between genomic regions are indicated by arcs. Both methods allow for the integration of additional information such as experimental data or annotations. However, providing a visualization that still allows for a quick and comprehensive interpretation of all important genomic variations together with various supplemental data, which may be highly heterogeneous, remains a challenge. Results: Here, we present two complementary approaches to tackle this problem. First, we propose the SuperGenome concept for the computation of a common coordinate system for all genomes in a multiple alignment. This coordinate system allows for the consistent placement of genome annotations in the presence of insertions, deletions and rearrangements. Second, we present the GenomeRing visualization that, based on the SuperGenome, creates an interactive overview visualization of the multiple genome alignment in a circular layout. We demonstrate our methods by applying them to an alignment of Campylobacter jejuni strains for the discovery of genomic islands as well as to an alignment of Helicobacter pylori , which we visualize in combination with gene expression data. Availability: GenomeRing and example data is available at http://it.inf.uni-tuebingen.de/software/genomering/ Contact: kay.nieselt@uni-tuebingen.de