Tuberculosis and leprosy in Italy. New skeletal evidence

Tuberculosis (TB) and leprosy are infections caused by Mycobacteria. This paper documents new skeletal evidence in Italy from the Iron Age site of Corvaro (Central Italy; 5th century BCE) and the Roman site of Palombara (Central Italy; 4th–5th century CE), and briefly reviews the extant evidence for these infections in Italy. The skeletal evidence for TB in Italy is more ancient than for leprosy, and is more common. The oldest evidence for both mycobacterial diseases is in the North of Italy, but this could be by chance, even if biomolecular models suggest a land route from the East to central Europe, especially for leprosy.     

中国古代人类麻风病和梅毒病的骨骼例证

文中记述了从中国不同时代考古遗址出土的人类麻风病和梅毒病骨骼标本的若干宏观病理特征,通过与国外资料对比,认为麻风病和梅毒病已经在秦汉时期的中国居民中传播,但是,目前至少还没有找到可靠病骨例证来证实麻风病和梅毒病均起源于中国。     

Detection of Mycobacterium leprae in nasal mucosa biopsies by the polymerase chain reaction

Several discoveries about leprosy indicate that Mycobacterium leprae transmission mainly occurs by inhalation, and the nose is major port of entry and exit. The present study evaluated the clinical application of PCR for detection of M. leprae DNA in nasal mucosa biopsies in untreated leprosy patients (52) and their contacts (99) from the State Reference Center in Sanitary Dermatology and Leprosy, Uberlandia, MG, Brazil. PCR detection of a 372-base pair DNA fragment from M. leprae was accomplished in 36 (69.2%) patients, from which 34 (91.9%) of them were multibacillaries. Furthermore, PCR was positive in 3 (16.7%) of 18 slit-skin smear negative, 4 (25.0%) of 16 skin lesion BI negative, 8 (33.3%) of 24 nasal mucosa BI negative patients, and 10 of 99 contacts (10.1%). The presence of bacilli in 10.1% of the contacts may potentially reflect an occult leprosy, and these patients must be accompanied, followed by a chemoprophylaxy treatment. Considering all PCR results against clinical and BI classification of patients and controls, we have found a sensitivity of 69.2%, a specificity of 89.9%, and an accuracy of 82.8%. It has been demonstrated here through PCR of nasal biopsies that the bacillus invades the mucosa, passing through the nasal inferior turbinate to reach peripheral blood. Therefore, the molecular investigation of invasive nasal biopsies by PCR tests has proven to be useful in defining patients of higher risk of transmission and risk-group contacts, which is an important step to reach the World Health Organization objective towards the elimination of leprosy as a public health problem.     

Shaping Skeletal Growth by Modular Regulatory Elements in the Bmp5 Gene

Cartilage and bone are formed into a remarkable range of shapes and sizes that underlie many anatomical adaptations to different lifestyles in vertebrates. Although the morphological blueprints for individual cartilage and bony structures must somehow be encoded in the genome, we currently know little about the detailed genomic mechanisms that direct precise growth patterns for particular bones. We have carried out large-scale enhancer surveys to identify the regulatory architecture controlling developmental expression of the mouse Bmp5 gene, which encodes a secreted signaling molecule required for normal morphology of specific skeletal features. Although Bmp5 is expressed in many skeletal precursors, different enhancers control expression in individual bones. Remarkably, we show here that different enhancers also exist for highly restricted spatial subdomains along the surface of individual skeletal structures, including ribs and nasal cartilages. Transgenic, null, and regulatory mutations confirm that these anatomy-specific sequences are sufficient to trigger local changes in skeletal morphology and are required for establishing normal growth rates on separate bone surfaces. Our findings suggest that individual bones are composite structures whose detailed growth patterns are built from many smaller lineage and gene expression domains. Individual enhancers in BMP genes provide a genomic mechanism for controlling precise growth domains in particular cartilages and bones, making it possible to separately regulate skeletal anatomy at highly specific locations in the body.     

Status and prospects of tree-ring research in Central Asia

Central Asia is the world’s largest non-zonal arid area, with rare and uneven precipitation. As a sensitive area of global change and with a vulnerable ecological environment, Central Asia is largely affected by global change. Various long-lived conifer species widely distributed in the mountains of Central Asia have become an important proxy for studying historical climatic, hydrological, and vegetation changes in this region. This paper reviews research progress on tree rings in Central Asia; specifically, the current state of research is addressed, highlights and bottleneck problems associated with the research are analyzed and discussed, and suggestions and prospects for further study of dendrochronology in this area are proposed.     

Genetic Evidence of an East Asian Origin and Paleolithic Northward Migration of Y-chromosome Haplogroup N

The Y-chromosome haplogroup N-M231 (Hg N) is distributed widely in eastern and central Asia, Siberia, as well as in eastern and northern Europe. Previous studies suggested a counterclockwise prehistoric migration of Hg N from eastern Asia to eastern and northern Europe. However, the root of this Y chromosome lineage and its detailed dispersal pattern across eastern Asia are still unclear. We analyzed haplogroup profiles and phylogeographic patterns of 1,570 Hg N individuals from 20,826 males in 359 populations across Eurasia. We first genotyped 6,371 males from 169 populations in China and Cambodia, and generated data of 360 Hg N individuals, and then combined published data on 1,210 Hg N individuals from Japanese, Southeast Asian, Siberian, European and Central Asian populations. The results showed that the sub-haplogroups of Hg N have a distinct geographical distribution. The highest Y-STR diversity of the ancestral Hg N sub-haplogroups was observed in the southern part of mainland East Asia, and further phylogeographic analyses supports an origin of Hg N in southern China. Combined with previous data, we propose that the early northward dispersal of Hg N started from southern China about 21 thousand years ago (kya), expanding into northern China 12–18 kya, and reaching further north to Siberia about 12–14 kya before a population expansion and westward migration into Central Asia and eastern/northern Europe around 8.0–10.0 kya. This northward migration of Hg N likewise coincides with retreating ice sheets after the Last Glacial Maximum (22–18 kya) in mainland East Asia.     

全球健康史项目亚洲模块——亚洲古代人群健康、疾病和生活方式的大数据

“全球健康史项目”探导新石器时期以来人类的疾病史,以前所未有的大数据研究方式回顾近代人类的历史,来衡量人类的生活质量和人类在充满挑战的生活条件下的适应能力。我们于2018年5月启动了全球健康史项目亚洲模块,将这个起源于美洲和欧洲的宏伟的项目扩展到亚洲。在全球健康史项目中纳入亚洲数据,不仅可以从进化的角度丰富近代人类演化历史上的第一手骨骼和口腔健康状况,还可以为健康政策制定的视野提供历史性的深度。     

Epidemiological approach to the paleopathological diagnosis of leprosy

In paleopathology it is usually assumed that modern diagnostic criteria can be applied to infectious diseases in the past. However, as both the human species and populations of pathogenic microorganisms undergo evolutionary changes, this assumption is not always well-founded. To get valid estimates of the frequency (the point prevalence at death) of leprosy in skeletal samples, sensitivity, specificity, and sample frequency must be estimated simultaneously. It is shown that more than three symptoms must be evaluated in at least three samples in order to reach estimates with well-described properties. The method is applied to three skeletal samples from Medieval Denmark; the samples were scored for the presence of seven osteological conditions indicating leprosy. For the osteological conditions, sensitivity varied from 0.36-0.80, and specificity from 0.58-0.98. The frequency of leprosy in the three samples was: Odense (a lepers' institution), 0.98, 95% CI 0.64-1.00; Malm? (urban cemetery), 0.02, 95% CI 0.00-0.07; and Tirup (rural cemetery), 0.36, 95% CI 0.23-0.46. It is concluded that it is indeed possible to estimate disease frequencies without reference to modern standards, and that leprosy occurred with widely differing frequencies in different segments of the Medieval population in southern Scandinavia.     

Climatic influence on the skeletal nasal aperture

Abstract Climate is thought to be one of the factors affecting the distribution of nasal form as represented by the breadth and height of the skeletal nasal aperture. A model of nasal function is developed to predict influences on the skeletal nasal dimensions by selection acting upon the external nasal passage and aperture. Cranial series from Alaska and Australia, each series representing a climatic continuum from warmer and moister conditions to cooler and drier conditions, verify the predictions. These data suggest conditions for testing hypotheses about human variation.     

Attachment of non-culturable toxigenic Vibrio cholerae O1 and non-O1 and Aeromonas spp. to the aquatic arthropod Gerris spinolae and plants in the River Ganga, Varanasi

Abstract DNA from Mycobacterium leprae , present in non-invasive clinical samples from leprosy patients, such as nasal secretion and hair bulbs, was submitted to amplification by the polymerase chain reaction using a M. leprae -specific repetitive sequence as a target. After optimization of sample processing and of the PCR conditions, we were able to detect DNA from M. leprae in both types of clinical samples, even from paucibacillary leprosy patients. The use of hair bulbs and nasal secretion as clinical samples for screening of household contacts and for the evaluation of a risk population, or for the follow-up of patients under chemotherapy, and monitoring of bacterial load is discussed.     

Demography and pathology of an urban slave population from New Orleans

Twenty-nine skeletons from the first cemetery in New Orleans provide significant new information about urban slavery in America. Dating as early as 1720 and used perhaps as late as 1810, the cemetery provided an identifiable sample of two whites, 13 blacks, one individual of possible Indian-white ancestry, and two possibly mulatto individuals. Numerous skeletal and dental lesions were noted in the series, and historical information was used in conjunction with the physical data to draw conclusions about rates and patterns of mortality. Pathological changes indicate that the cemetery contained individuals representing two slave occupational groups, house servants and laborers. This research provides information in the expanding area of Afro-American biohistorical research.     

Outside St. Jørgen: leprosy in the medieval Danish city of Odense

Leprosy was a common and dreaded disease in the Danish Middle Ages (AD 1050-1536). Starting in the second half of the 13th century, leprosaria were established in many Danish towns and cities. In the city of Odense (on the island of Funen, Denmark), the cemetery of the leprosarium was totally excavated, and four nonleprosarium medieval and early modern cemeteries have been partly excavated. This paper explores the frequency of leprosy in the nonleprosarium cemeteries in Odense, and looks for evidence of selective exclusion from the ordinary population. The analyses are based on 733 skeletons from four cemeteries in Odense: the Gray Friars monastery, St. Albani parish church, St. Knuds cathedral, and Black Friars monastery. Seven lesions are scored and, based on known epidemiological properties (i.e., specificity and sensitivity) of these lesions, scores were transformed to statistics characterizing an individual's risk of having suffered from leprosy. This statistical approach remains of primary theoretical value, pending confirmation by independent research groups at other sites. Prevalence of the skeletal manifestation of leprosy at death varied between 0-17% among the different cemeteries in Odense. The highest prevalence was seen in cemeteries with many burials before AD 1400. It is estimated that before AD 1400, between 14-17% of those buried in the nonleprosarium cemeteries suffered from leprosy. In all nonleprosarium cemeteries, there was evidence for selective exclusion of people with facial leprosy lesions. For a short period just up to AD 1300, the cemetery of the Odense leprosarium had, on average, more than 20 yearly burials. The establishment of the leprosarium was followed within a relatively short period by a dramatic decline in the number of sufferers of leprosy in the nonleprosarium cemeteries. The number of yearly burials in the leprosarium cemetery also declined rapidly during the 14th century. The present analyses do not permit conclusions about the reasons for this decline in leprosy prevalence.     

Unravelling migrations in the steppe: mitochondrial DNA sequences from ancient central Asians

This study helps to clarify the debate on the Western and Eastern genetic influences in Central Asia. Thirty-six skeletal remains from Kazakhstan (Central Asia), excavated from different sites dating between the fifteenth century BC to the fifth century AD, have been analysed for the hypervariable control region (HVR-I) and haplogroup diagnostic single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the mitochondrial DNA genome. Standard authentication criteria for ancient DNA studies, including multiple extractions, cloning of PCR products and independent replication, have been followed. The distribution of east and west Eurasian lineages through time in the region is concordant with the available archaeological information: prior to the thirteenth-seventh century BC, all Kazakh samples belong to European lineages; while later an arrival of east Eurasian sequences that coexisted with the previous west Eurasian genetic substratum can be detected. The presence of an ancient genetic substratum of European origin in West Asia may be related to the discovery of ancient mummies with European features in Xinjiang and to the existence of an extinct Indo-European language, Tocharian. This study demonstrates the usefulness of the ancient DNA in unravelling complex patterns of past human migrations so as to help decipher the origin of present-day admixed populations.     

Leprosy and tuberculosis in Iron Age Southeast Asia?

The recent excavation of a sample of 120 human skeletons from an Iron Age site in the valley of the Mun River, a tributary of the Mekong River on the Khorat Plateau in northeast Thailand, has provided the largest sample from this period in the region to date. This paper reviews three individuals from the sample with pathological changes for which the differential diagnosis includes systemic infectious disease. In two of these, both males with lesions of the hands and feet, leprosy and psoriatic arthritis are discussed as differential diagnoses, with leprosy the most probable. In the third, a female with lesions of the spine, the differential diagnosis includes tuberculosis and nonspecific osteomyelitis. Tuberculosis is the most probable diagnosis. Although the focus of this paper is a presentation of the evidence for infectious disease at Noen U-Loke, the significance of probable diagnoses of mycobacterial diseases for the history of the diseases and for prehistory in mainland Southeast Asia is also briefly discussed.     

Early agriculture and crop transmission among Bronze Age mobile pastoralists of Central Eurasia

Archaeological research in Central Eurasia is exposing unprecedented scales of trans-regional interaction and technology transfer between East Asia and southwest Asia deep into the prehistoric past. This article presents a new archaeobotanical analysis from pastoralist campsites in the mountain and desert regions of Central Eurasia that documents the oldest known evidence for domesticated grains and farming among seasonally mobile herders. Carbonized grains from the sites of Tasbas and Begash illustrate the first transmission of southwest Asian and East Asian domesticated grains into the mountains of Inner Asia in the early third millennium BC. By the middle second millennium BC, seasonal camps in the mountains and deserts illustrate that Eurasian herders incorporated the cultivation of millet, wheat, barley and legumes into their subsistence strategy. These findings push back the chronology for domesticated plant use among Central Eurasian pastoralists by approximately 2000 years. Given the geography, chronology and seed morphology of these data, we argue that mobile pastoralists were key agents in the spread of crop repertoires and the transformation of agricultural economies across Asia from the third to the second millennium BC.     

High-resolution analysis of Y-chromosomal polymorphisms reveals signatures of population movements from central Asia and West Asia into India

Linguistic evidence suggests that West Asia and Central Asia have been the two major geographical sources of genes in the contemporary Indian gene pool. To test the nature and extent of similarities in the gene pools of these regions we have collected DNA samples from four ethnic populations of northern India, and have screened these samples for a set of 18 Y-chromosome polymorphic markers (12 unique event polymorphisms and six short tandem repeats). These data from Indian populations have been analysed in conjunction with published data from several West Asian and Central Asian populations. Our analyses have revealed traces of population movement from Central Asia and West Asia into India. Two haplogroups, HG-3 and HG-9, which are known to have arisen in the Central Asian region, are found in reasonably high frequencies (41.7% and 14.3% respectively) in the study populations. The ages estimated for these two haplogroups are less in the Indian populations than those estimated from data on Middle Eastern populations. A neighbour-joining tree based on Y-haplogroup frequencies shows that the North Indians are genetically placed between the West Asian and Central Asian populations. This is consistent with gene flow from West Asia and Central Asia into India.     

中亚河中地区青铜时代以来绿洲农业的演化与文明的交流

中亚河中地区是东西方文明交流的重要通道,当地干旱的气候对环境变化十分敏感,同时大量保存良好的考古遗迹使得该地区十分适合进行农业活动与文明交流的相关研究。本研究通过年代学与植物考古学方法,对阿姆河流域范围青铜时代晚期至萨珊波斯时期的考古遗址进行研究,尝试重建区内全新世人类农业活动的发展过程,并分析研究4000 BP以来人类的农业活动对环境变化的响应与适应。研究结果显示,河中地区农业的作物构成自4000 BP的青铜时代晚期就已表现出高度的复杂性。虽然在不同的时期不同类型作物的种植比例存在一定的差别,但当地的作物始终以大麦、小麦为主,辅以粟、黍、豆类等谷物及葡萄等果木,自青铜时代晚期形成后这种综合了东西方元素的绿洲农业便保持稳定;后期虽有水稻等作物加入但并没有对已有结构产生较大的影响。本研究为进一步了解中亚内陆干旱-半干旱地区绿洲农业的结构演化及其对环境变化的响应,以及探究不同起源地区作物在亚欧大陆的传播提供了基础资料和新的视角。     

Evolutionary history of Spalacidae inferred from fossil occurrences and molecular phylogeny

1. The Spalacidae is a family of strictly subterranean rodents with a long evolutionary history. It is unclear how ecological changes have influenced the evolutionary history of these mammals, and the phylogenetic relationship of the subfamilies within Spalacidae is controversial.
2. Through compiling fossil records, reconstructing molecular phylogeny from molecular data, determining the date of divergence, and analysing their geographical evolution based on molecular data and fossil taxa, we explore the origin and evolutionary process of Spalacidae in detail. Diversification within Spalacidae dates to the Late Oligocene, approximately 25 million years ago, based on molecular data.
3. This family originated in South and East Asia in the Late Oligocene, and then split into four clades. The first clade includes Rhizomyinae, which was highly diversified in South Asia in the Early-to-Middle Miocene. Then Rhizomyinae from Asia migrated to northern Africa in multiple waves through the Afro-Eurasian land bridge. Its range largely contracted in the Late Miocene, notably in Central Asia. The second clade includes the extinct Tachyoryctoidinae, which was confined to East and Central Asia, and survived from the Late Oligocene to the Late Miocene. The third clade includes Spalacinae, which have remained around the Mediterranean region since the Late Oligocene with slight trend of northward expansion. The fourth clade is Myospalacinae. Ancient genera of this subfamily in East Asia dispersed eastward during the Late Miocene and reached northern China and south-east Russia.
4. The general distribution pattern of Spalacidae has persisted since the Late Miocene. Extinction of Tachyoryctoidinae and clear range contraction of Rhizomyinae in Central and East Asia are likely to have resulted from increased aridification, while the slight northward expansion of Myospalacinae and Spalacinae since the Quaternary was probably a response to a similar northward expansion of suitable vegetation for these animals.

     

Migratory movements of waterfowl in Central Asia and avian influenza emergence: sporadic transmission of H5N1 from east to west

Waterfowl in the genera Anas and Tadorna are suspected as vectors in the long‐distance transmission of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1. The former Soviet Republics of Central Asia are situated at an important migratory crossroads for these and other species of birds that bridges regions where the disease is prevalent. However, waterfowl movements through Central Asia are poorly quantified. In this study, historical data derived from over 80 years of bird ringing are combined with recent satellite tracking data to delineate migration routes, movement chronology and habitat use patterns of waterfowl in relation to H5N1 outbreak locations. Results confirm migratory linkage between breeding and moulting areas in northern Kazakhstan and southern Siberia, with non‐breeding areas in the Caspian, Black and eastern Mediterranean Sea basins, as well as with South Asia. However, unlike the situation in neighbouring regions, most notably western China, H5N1 outbreaks have not been recurrent in Central Asia after they were first reported during summer 2005 and spring 2006. These findings have implications in relation to potential sampling biases, species‐specific variation in migratory behaviour and continuing regional H5N1 transmission risks.