Rickettsia felis DNA recovered from a child who lived in southern Africa 2000 years ago

Riaan F. Rifkin; Surendra Vikram; Jaime Alcorta; Jean-Baptiste Ramond; Don A. Cowan; Mattias Jakobsson; Carina M. Schlebusch; Marlize Lombard

doi:10.1038/s42003-023-04582-y

Communications Biology (Mar 2023)

Rickettsia felis DNA recovered from a child who lived in southern Africa 2000 years ago

Riaan F. Rifkin,
Surendra Vikram,
Jaime Alcorta,
Jean-Baptiste Ramond,
Don A. Cowan,
Mattias Jakobsson,
Carina M. Schlebusch,
Marlize Lombard

Affiliations

Riaan F. Rifkin: Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics, Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, University of Pretoria
Surendra Vikram: Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics, Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, University of Pretoria
Jaime Alcorta: Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Jean-Baptiste Ramond: Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics, Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, University of Pretoria
Don A. Cowan: Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics, Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, University of Pretoria
Mattias Jakobsson: Department of Organismal Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen
Carina M. Schlebusch: Department of Organismal Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen
Marlize Lombard: Palaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-04582-y
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 6, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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Ancient genomic evidence for Rickettsia felis presence in human remains from 2000 years ago reframes previous hypotheses of R. felis as a novel or emergent pathogen in modern humans.

Published in Communications Biology

ISSN: 2399-3642 (Online)
Publisher: Nature Portfolio
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Science: Biology (General)
Website: https://www.nature.com/commsbio/

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