Evolutionary anthropology and genes: Investigating the genetics of human evolution from excavated skeletal remains

Ancestral genetic legacy of the extant population of Argentina as predicted by autosomal and X-chromosomal DIPs

Aiming to determine their ancestry diagnostic potential, we selected two sets of nuclear deletion/insertion polymorphisms (DIPs), including 30 located on autosomal chromosomes and 33 on the X chromosome. We analysed over 200 unrelated Argentinean individuals living in urban areas of Argentina. As in most American countries, the extant Argentinean population is the result of tricontinental genetic admixture. The peopling process within the continent was characterised by mating bias involving Native American and enslaved African females and European males. Differential results were detected between autosomal DIPs and X-DIPs. The former showed that the European component was the largest (77.8%), followed by the Native American (17.9%) and African (4.2%) components, in good agreement with the previously published results. In contrast, X-DIPs showed that the European genetic contribution was also predominant but much smaller (52.9%) and considerably larger Native American and African contributions (39.6% and 7.5%, respectively). Genetic analysis revealed continental genetic contributions whose associated phenotypic traits have been mostly lost. The observed differences between the estimated continental genetic contribution proportions based on autosomal DIPs and X-DIPs reflect the effects of autosome and X-chromosome transmission behaviour and their different recombination patterns. This work shows the ability of the tested DIP panels to infer ancestry and confirm mating bias. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study focusing on ancestry-informative autosomal DIP and X-DIP comparisons performed in a sample representing the entire Argentinean population.

Human Parasites in Medieval Europe: Lifestyle, Sanitation and Medical Treatment

Parasites have been infecting humans throughout our evolution. However, not all people suffered with the same species or to the same intensity throughout this time. Our changing way of life has altered the suitability of humans to infection by each type of parasite. This analysis focuses upon the evidence for parasites from archaeological excavations at medieval sites across Europe. Comparison between the patterns of infection in the medieval period allows us to see how changes in sanitation, herding animals, growing and fertilizing crops, the fishing industry, food preparation and migration all affected human susceptibility to different parasites. We go on to explore how ectoparasites may have spread infectious bacterial diseases, and also consider what medieval medical practitioners thought of parasites and how they tried to treat them. While modern research has shown the use of a toilet decreases the risk of contracting certain intestinal parasites, the evidence for past societies presented here suggests that the invention of latrines had no observable beneficial effects upon intestinal health. This may be because toilets were not sufficiently ubiquitous until the last century, or that the use of fresh human faeces for manuring crops still ensured those parasite species were easily able to reinfect the population.

Palaeopathology and genes: investigating the genetics of infectious diseases in excavated human skeletal remains and mummies from past populations

The aim of this paper is to review the use of genetics in palaeomicrobiology, and to highlight the importance of understanding past diseases. Palaeomicrobiology is the study of disease pathogens in skeletal and mummified remains from archaeological contexts. It has revolutionarised our understanding of health in the past by enabling a deeper knowledge of the origins and evolution of many diseases that have shaped us as a species. Bacterial diseases explored include tuberculosis, leprosy, bubonic plague, typhoid, syphilis, endemic and epidemic typhus, trench fever, and Helicobacter pylori. Viral diseases discussed include influenza, hepatitis B, human papilloma virus (HPV), human T-cell lymphotrophic virus (HTLV-1) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Parasitic diseases investigated include malaria, leishmaniasis, Chagas' disease, roundworm, whipworm, pinworm, Chinese liver fluke, fleas and lice. Through a better understanding of disease origins and their evolution, we can place into context how many infectious diseases are changing over time, and so help us estimate how they may change in the future.