Article Dans Une Revue Science Année : 2025

Pre-European contact leprosy in the Americas and its current persistence

John Lindo
Nery Ortiz
  • Fonction : Auteur
Carlos Wiens
  • Fonction : Auteur
Juri Hiebert
Griselda Montes de Oca
Vanessa Paredes-Solis
Carlos Franco-Paredes
Lucio Vera-Cabrera
José Pereira Brunelli
Mary Jackson
John Spencer
Claudio Salgado
Xiang-Yang Han
Camron Pearce
Alaine Warren
Patricia Rosa
Amanda de Finardi
  • Fonction : Auteur
Andréa de F. F. Belone
Cynthia Ferreira
Mayra Silva Miranda
Iris Estrada-Garcia
  • Fonction : Auteur
Fermin Jurado-Santacruz
Hannes Schroeder
Mariano del Papa
Ramanuj Lahiri
Ripan Malhi

Résumé

Leprosy, primarily caused by Mycobacterium leprae , is considered a disease introduced into the Americas during European colonization. However, the recent discovery of a second pathogen causing leprosy, M. lepromatosis , mainly found in the Americas, challenges this view. Here, we show that M. lepromatosis infected humans in the Americas before European contact. By screening 389 ancient and 408 contemporary samples, we have expanded the genetic data available for the species. Phylogenetic analyses revealed distinct human-infecting clades of M. lepromatosis , with one dominating North America since colonial times. The presence of millennia-old strains in North and South America indicates M. lepromatosis may have been widespread during the Late Holocene, demonstrating M. lepromatosis leprosy has a long-standing history in the Americas before European arrival.

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DOI

Cite 10.48802/owey.9YsfbYxw Jeu de données Lopopolo, M., Rascovan, N., Del Papa, M., Lahiri, R., Malhi, R. S., Avanzi, C., de Flamingh, A., Tressieres, G., Iraeta-Orbegozo, M., Mitchell, J., Vera-Cabrera, L., Orlando, L., & Schroeder, H. (2025). Microbial sequencing of ancient human samples associated to the article ‘Uncovering pre-European contact leprosy in the Americas and its enduring persistence’ (Version 1.0) [Dataset]. OWEY. https://doi.org/10.48802/OWEY.9YSFBYXW

Ancient DNA data are accessible through the Owey platform hosted by Institut Pasteur
DOI

Cite 10.5281/zenodo.15396306 Article Lopopolo, M., Rascovan, N., Fumey, J., Ponce Soto, G. Y., & Duchene, S. (2025). Uncovering pre-European contact leprosy in the Americas and its enduring persistence. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.15396306

The code used for bioinformatic analyses and supplementary tables are available through Zenodo

Dates et versions

pasteur-05106303 , version 1 (11-06-2025)
pasteur-05106303 , version 2 (11-06-2025)

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Maria Lopopolo, Charlotte Avanzi, Sebastian Duchene, Pierre Luisi, Alida de Flamingh, et al.. Pre-European contact leprosy in the Americas and its current persistence. Science, In press, pp.eadu7144. ⟨10.1126/science.adu7144⟩. ⟨pasteur-05106303v2⟩
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