New Insights into Syphilis Origins Linked to Ancient DNA
The known initial outbreak of syphilis in Europe dates back to the early 16th century. However, the roots of the disease stretch much farther back in South America. A skeleton, around 5,500 years old, found in Colombia has yielded DNA from the bacterium Treponema pallidum.
This particular strain, identified as TE1-3, isn’t found today but is part of an ancient lineage that diverged early on. It appears to have separated before other subspecies associated with diseases like syphilis, yaws, bejel, and pinta emerged globally.
Led by researcher Davide Bozzi, the discovery pushes back the timeline for treponemal diseases by approximately 3,000 years. It suggests a possible origin for syphilis in the Americas rather than Europe, adding to existing genetic evidence from other sites in South and Central America.
The earliest syphilis cases in Europe coincided with Christopher Columbus’s return from the Americas, leading to a historical narrative that ties the two events together—often clouded by racist and xenophobic views about disease transmission.
Current genomic research is delving into these complex origins. Indications from ancient remains suggest that diseases resembling syphilis were already present in the Americas long before their more recognizable forms appeared in Europe.
It’s still unclear if the TE1-3 strain was transmitted through sexual contact, as is common with syphilis, or via skin-to-skin interactions like those observed with yaws and similar diseases. However, its genome shows virulence genes akin to those in modern strains, indicating potential adaptiveness to infect human hosts.
Bozzi and his team estimate that TE1-3 diverged from other T. pallidum lineages about 13,700 years ago, suggesting that infectious diseases may have been arising in hunter-gatherer communities prior to the advent of farming and livestock domestication.
The researchers note that the discovery of a single ancient pathogen can significantly alter current understanding of how diseases emerge. Yet, just because these findings pinpoint early evidence in South America doesn’t mean that similar conditions were isolated to that region.
Some scientists in Europe still assert that treponemal diseases existed there long before Columbus’s era, implying that the bacterium crossed both continents earlier than typically thought. Beyond that, there’s an intriguing notion that the expression of syphilis—along with other related diseases—might have been influenced by environmental and social factors, altering how they spread and were perceived over time.
This raises the question: Could the pathogen that caused syphilis have begun as something completely different in pre-Columbian populations? It might have only later evolved into a sexually transmitted infection, acquiring its societal stigma in 15th-century Europe.
Without further evidence, these theories remain just that—speculative yet fascinating.
In a related analysis, anthropologists Molly Zuckerman and Lydia Bailey suggest that these findings challenge oversimplified views of disease origins by highlighting the complex interactions between pathogens and human and animal populations. They argue that framing Treponema origins through a geographic lens overlooks these ecological intricacies and pathogens’ adaptability to various conditions.
This study was published in Science.
