PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Malaria-causing protozoa of the genus Plasmodium have exerted one of the strongest selective pressures on the human genome, and resistance alleles provide biomolecular footprints that outline the historical reach of these species1. Nevertheless, debate persists over when and how malaria parasites emerged as human pathogens and spread around the globe1,2. To address these questions, we generated high-coverage ancient mitochondrial and nuclear genome-wide data from P. falciparum, P. vivax and P. malariae from 16 countries spanning around 5,500 years of human history. We identified P. vivax and P. falciparum across geographically disparate regions of Eurasia from as early as the fourth and first millennia BCE, respectively; for P. vivax, this evidence pre-dates textual references by several millennia3. Genomic analysis supports distinct disease histories for P. falciparum and P. vivax in the Americas: similarities between now-eliminated European and peri-contact South American strains indicate that European colonizers were the source of American P. vivax, whereas the trans-Atlantic slave trade probably introduced P. falciparum into the Americas. Our data underscore the role of cross-cultural contacts in the dissemination of malaria, laying the biomolecular foundation for future palaeo-epidemiological research into the impact of Plasmodium parasites on human history. Finally, our unexpected discovery of P. falciparum in the high-altitude Himalayas provides a rare case study in which individual mobility can be inferred from infection status, adding to our knowledge of cross-cultural connectivity in the region nearly three millennia ago.
摘要：
引起疟疾的疟原虫属原生动物对人类基因组施加了最强的选择压力之一，和抗性等位基因提供了生物分子足迹，概述了这些物种的历史范围1。然而，关于疟疾寄生虫何时以及如何作为人类病原体出现并在全球传播的争论仍然存在。为了解决这些问题,我们从恶性疟原虫中产生了高覆盖率的古老线粒体和核基因组数据，来自16个国家的间日疟原虫和疟原虫，跨越约5500年的人类历史。早在公元前四千年和第一个千年，我们就在欧亚大陆地理上不同的地区鉴定了间日疟原虫和恶性疟原虫，分别；对于间日疟原虫，这一证据早于文本引用数千年3。基因组分析支持美洲恶性疟原虫和间日疟原虫的不同疾病史：现已消除的欧洲菌株和周围接触的南美菌株之间的相似性表明，欧洲殖民者是美国间日疟原虫的来源，而跨大西洋奴隶贸易可能将恶性疟原虫引入美洲。我们的数据强调了跨文化接触在疟疾传播中的作用，为未来疟原虫寄生虫对人类历史影响的古流行病学研究奠定了生物分子基础。最后,我们在高海拔喜马拉雅山意外发现的恶性疟原虫提供了一个罕见的案例研究，其中可以从感染状态推断个体流动性，近三千年前增加了我们对该地区跨文化连通性的了解。
