Syphilis-like diseases were already widespread in America before the arrival of Columbus
One of the biggest mysteries in historical epidemics is whether syphilis was introduced in Europe by Columbus’ first voyage to the Americas. A new international study, led by the University of Basel with contributions from the Computational Evolution group at D-BSSE, reconstructed Treponema pallidum genomes from nearly 2000-year-old remains from Brazil. The finding: treponema diseases were already present in the New World at least 1000 years before Columbus set sail.
Researchers at the Universities of Basel and Zurich have discovered the genetic material of the pathogen Treponema pallidum in the bones of people who died in Brazil 2,000 years ago. This is the oldest verified discovery of this pathogen thus far, and it proves that humans were suffering from diseases akin to syphilis – known as treponematoses – long before Columbus’s discovery of America. The new findings, published in the scientific journal Nature, call into question previous theories concerning the spread of syphilis by the Spanish conquistadors.
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Research article in Nature:
Majander, K., Pla-Díaz, M., du Plessis, L. et al. (2024) external pageRedefining the treponemal history through pre-Columbian genomes from Brazil. Nature, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06965-x
Learn about the Computational Evolution group at D-BSSE led by Tanja Stadler.