Teeth from long-dead people and animals are divulging the history of modern-day pathogens.
Studying ancient DNA can also help researchers to learn about the history of less deadly pathogens, such as the strain of oral herpes that has infected about two-thirds of the global population under age 50 today. In 2016, Scheib and her colleagues were looking for traces ofin the 600-year-old tooth of a teen who died in St. John’s Hospital in Cambridgeshire, UK, when they stumbled across genetic sequences that seemed to match those of HSV-1.
By evaluating the genetic mutations that evolved among the four ancient genomes and comparing them with modern HSV-1 strains, the researchers deduced that they all had a common ancestor that popped up around 5,000 years ago. Before this, different versions of herpes were circulating, Scheib says. But HSV-1 evolved to ruthlessly outcompete them.Exactly what led this new variety of herpes to be more successful than older versions is still unclear.
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