E.coli is a bacteria that is a major health concern and has resulted in many deaths. Although the bacteria is found in the intestines of healthy humans and animals, its evolutionary history is unknown. Now, researchers at McMaster University, have successfully reconstructed the first ancient genome of E.coli using the gallstones of a 16th-century Italian mummy. E.coli did not lead to a pandemic. and rather called a combined organism. Such bacteria enter the interior of our body and wait to attack the host when it becomes vulnerable. They often strike during conditions such as stress, immunodeficiency, or illness.
Pandemics like the Black Death, which has claimed the lives of some 200 million people globally, are well documented. However, there is no historical data on the number of people lost to E.coli, even if this bacterium also significantly affects human health.
“Strictly focusing on pandemic pathogens as the sole story of our past mass mortality would ignore the great burden stemming from chance correlations resulting from the stress of life causes,” speak evolutionary geneticist Hendrik Poinar, director of the McMaster Center for Ancient DNA and principal investigator at the university’s Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Diseases.
In the study, published in communication biology, The researchers aim to create E.coli’s 400-year-old ancestor to give them insight into its evolution to date. They used fragments from the mummified remains of a group of Italian aristocrats that had been excavated to form the Monastery of Saint Domenico Maggiore in Naples in 1983.
The team analyzed the mummy of one of the aristocrats believed to have died in 1586 at the age of 48. The researchers also noted that the person had gallstones and chronic cholecystitis due to this cause. .
“When we examined these remains, there was no evidence to say that this man was infected with E.coli bacteria. Unlike an infection such as smallpox, there are no physiological indicators. Nobody knows what it is,” said George Long, a bioinformatics graduate student at McMaster. Long was also the lead author of the study and conducted the mummy analysis.
The researchers isolated pieces of bacteria from the body and used the material to develop genomes. With this, they were able to understand the functions of the genome and now hope to assist other researchers looking for such potential pathogens.
Most forms of E.coli pose no danger to the host as they live in their intestines. However, some strains have been found that can cause even fatal outbreaks of food poisoning and sepsis. In addition, E.coli has the ability to adapt so it is resistant to treatments.
