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: 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.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4775254/" 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/PMC4775254/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Maixner, Frank -- Krause-Kyora, Ben -- Turaev, Dmitrij -- Herbig, Alexander -- Hoopmann, Michael R -- Hallows, Janice L -- Kusebauch, Ulrike -- Vigl, Eduard Egarter -- Malfertheiner, Peter -- Megraud, Francis -- O'Sullivan, Niall -- Cipollini, Giovanna -- Coia, Valentina -- Samadelli, Marco -- Engstrand, Lars -- Linz, Bodo -- Moritz, Robert L -- Grimm, Rudolf -- Krause, Johannes -- Nebel, Almut -- Moodley, Yoshan -- Rattei, Thomas -- Zink, Albert -- 2P50 GM076547/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- P50 GM076547/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM087221/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- S10 RR027584/RR/NCRR NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Jan 8;351(6269):162-5. doi: 10.1126/science.aad2545.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Institute for Mummies and the Iceman, European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano (EURAC), Viale Druso 1, 39100 Bolzano, Italy. frank.maixner@eurac.edu albert.zink@eurac.edu. ; Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology, Kiel University, Schittenhelmstrasse 12, 24105 Kiel, Germany. ; CUBE-Division of Computational Systems Biology, Department of Microbiology and Ecosystem Science, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria. ; Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tubingen, Rumelinstrasse 23, 72072 Tubingen, Germany. Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany. ; Institute for Systems Biology, 401 Terry Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98109, USA. ; Scuola Superiore Sanitaria Provinciale "Claudiana," Via Lorenz Bohler 13, 39100 Bolzano, Italy. ; Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Infectious Diseases, Otto-von-Guericke University, Leipziger Strasse 44, 39120 Magdeburg, Germany. ; Universite de Bordeaux, Centre National de Reference des Helicobacters et Campylobacters and INSERM U853, 146 rue Leo Saignat, 33076 Bordeaux, France. ; Institute for Mummies and the Iceman, European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano (EURAC), Viale Druso 1, 39100 Bolzano, Italy. ; Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet, 141 83 Stockholm, Sweden. ; Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA. ; Robert Mondavi Institute for Food Science, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. ; Department of Zoology, University of Venda, Private Bag X5050, Thohoyandou 0950, Republic of South Africa. Department of Integrative Biology and Evolution, Konrad Lorenz Institute for Ethology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Savoyenstrasse 1a, 1160 Vienna, Austria.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26744403" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Author(s): F. Hardy, A. E. Böhmer, L. de' Medici, M. Capone, G. Giovannetti, R. Eder, L. Wang, M. He, T. Wolf, P. Schweiss, R. Heid, A. Herbig, P. Adelmann, R. A. Fisher, and C. Meingast We present a comprehensive study of the low-temperature heat capacity and thermal expansion of single crystals of the hole-doped Ba 1 − x K x Fe 2 As 2 series ( 0 〈 x 〈 1 ) and the end-members RbFe 2 As 2 and CsFe 2 As 2 . A large increase of the Sommerfeld coefficient γ n is observed with both decreasing band filli… [Phys. Rev. B 94, 205113] Published Tue Nov 08, 2016

Description: Mycobacterium lepromatosis is an uncultured human pathogen associated with diffuse lepromatous leprosy and a reactional state known as Lucio's phenomenon. By using deep sequencing with and without DNA enrichment, we obtained the near-complete genome sequence of M. lepromatosis present in a skin biopsy from a Mexican patient, and compared it...

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

Description: The Justinianic Plague, which started in the sixth century and lasted to the mid eighth century, is thought to be the first of three historically documented plague pandemics causing massive casualties. Historical accounts and molecular data suggest the bacterium Yersinia pestis as its etiological agent. Here we present a new high-coverage (17.9-fold) Y. pestis genome obtained from a sixth-century skeleton recovered from a southern German burial site close to Munich. The reconstructed genome enabled the detection of 30 unique substitutions as well as structural differences that have not been previously described. We report indels affecting a lacl family transcription regulator gene as well as nonsynonymous substitutions in the nrdE , fadJ , and pcp genes, that have been suggested as plague virulence determinants or have been shown to be upregulated in different models of plague infection. In addition, we identify 19 false positive substitutions in a previously published lower-coverage Y. pestis genome from another archaeological site of the same time period and geographical region that is otherwise genetically identical to the high-coverage genome sequence reported here, suggesting low-genetic diversity of the plague during the sixth century in rural southern Germany.