Abstract:
Both origin and evolution of tuberculosis and its pathogens (Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex) are not fully understood. The
paleopathological investigation of human remains offers a unique insight into the molecular evolution and spread including
correlative data of the environment. Themolecular analysis of material from Egypt (3000–500 BC), Sudan (200–600 AD),Hungary
(600–1700 AD), Latvia (1200–1600 AD), and South Germany (1400–1800 AD) surprisingly revealed constantly high frequencies
of tuberculosis in all different time periods excluding significant environmental influence on tuberculosis spread. The typing of
various mycobacteria strains provides evidence for ancestral M. tuberculosis strains in Pre- to early Egyptian dynastic material
(3500–2650 BC), while typical M. africanum signatures were detected in a Middle Kingdom tomb (2050–1650 BC). Samples from
the New Kingdom to Late Period (1500–500 BC) indicated modern M. tuberculosis strains. No evidence was seen for M. bovis in
Egyptian material while M. bovis signatures were first identified in Siberian biomaterial dating 2000 years before present. These
results contraindicates the theory that M. tuberculosis evolved from M. bovis during early domestication in the region of the “Fertile
Crescent,” but supports the scenario that M. tuberculosis probably derived from an ancestral progenitor strain. The environmental
influence of this evolutionary scenario deserves continuing intense evaluation.
