Detection of Mycobacterium leprae DNA from remains of a medieval individual, Amiens, France
Résumé
Leprosy, caused by the bacterial pathogen Mycobacterium leprae, has been observed in humans since remote times. Ancient Sanskrit texts written as early as 600 BC describe both nervous and skin damage. Skeletal changes, i.e. specific and non-specific bone alterations, are observed in ~5% of individuals with leprosy ; the oldest evidence of the disease in ancient bones can be traced back to c.3500 BC in Hungary. Initial molecular identification of the pathogen on archaeological specimens was described in 1993. Additional knowledge on M. leprae from ancient sources was provided by subsequent PCR-based and whole-genome-sequencing approaches. Despite several studies on the repartition of leprosy and the different phylogenetic branch of M. leprae among European populations [6], detection and characterization of this pathogen on ancient samples from medieval France has not been published. We studied one individual from the urban cemetery of Caudron Street (Amiens city, northern France (see Supplementary material, Appendix S1). This skeleton, SP20076, fairly incomplete and dated from the tenth to eleventh centuries, displays skeletal lesions suggestive of leprosy, according to the palaeopathological literature (Fig. 1a; see Supplementary material, Appendix S2 and Fig. S1). The investigated individual is an adult of unknown sex, represented only partially by the lower limb elements.
Domaines
Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]Origine | Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s) |
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