研究小组报道了一个5500年前的密螺旋体基因组（TE1-3），它来自哥伦比亚Tequendama I岩石避难所的全新世中期狩猎-采集者环境。他们的分析表明，TE1-3与所有已知的梅毒T. pallidum亚种都是姐妹谱系，这种病原体在与欧洲人接触以及梅毒、雅司病和贝杰尔病亚种多样化之前数千年就出现在美洲。这一发现拓宽了梅毒螺旋体的已知多样性，同时将梅毒螺旋体病原体的基因组记录延长了数千年，为梅毒螺旋体在美洲的悠久历史提供了分子支持。
据介绍，梅毒螺旋体病是一种由梅毒螺旋体亚种和T. carateum螺旋体（雅司病、贝杰尔病、梅毒、平塔病）引起的细菌感染，已经折磨了人类数千年。尽管有古病理学证据和新出现的基因组数据，但对这些病原体的进化史知之甚少。
附：英文原文
Title: A 5500-year-old Treponema pallidum genome from Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia
Author: Davide Bozzi, Nasreen Z. Broomandkhoshbacht, Miguel Delgado, Jane E. Buikstra, Carlos Eduardo G. Amorim, Kalina Kassadjikova, Melissa Pratt Estrada, Gilbert Greub, Nicolas Rascovan, David majs, Lars Fehren-Schmitz, Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas, Elizabeth A. Nelson
Issue&Volume: 2026-01-22
Abstract: Treponematosis, a bacterial infection caused by Treponema pallidum subspecies and T. carateum (yaws, bejel, syphilis, pinta), has afflicted humans for millennia. Despite paleopathological evidence and emerging genomic data, little is known about the evolutionary history of these pathogens. We report a 5500-year-old Treponema genome (TE1-3) from Middle Holocene hunter-gatherer contexts of the rock shelter Tequendama I in Colombia. Our analyses place TE1-3 as a sister lineage to all known T. pallidum subspecies, positioning this pathogen in the Americas millennia before European contact and before diversification of the subspecies causing syphilis, yaws, and bejel. This discovery broadens the known diversity of T. pallidum while extending the genomic record of treponemal pathogens by millennia, providing molecular support for a deep history of T. pallidum in the Americas.
DOI: adw3020
Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adw3020