Overview
- The Science study reconstructed a full Treponema pallidum genome from a Middle Holocene individual at Colombia’s Tequendama I rock shelter.
- Deep shotgun sequencing of a tibia without visible disease lesions enabled the opportunistic recovery of the pathogen’s DNA.
- Phylogenetic modeling indicates the lineage split from known strains about 13,700 years ago, predating the ~6,000‑year divergence of modern subspecies.
- The ancient genome does not match the subspecies that cause syphilis, yaws, or bejel, pointing to greater past diversity in treponemal bacteria.
- The authors caution they cannot infer symptoms, virulence, or transmission from the genome and plan broader ancient‑pathogen sampling to clarify treponemal evolution.