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de-Dios T, van Dorp L, Charlier P, Morfopoulou S, Lizano E, Bon C, Le Bitouzé C, Alvarez-Estape M, Marquès-Bonet T, Balloux F, Lalueza-Fox C. Metagenomic analysis of a blood stain from the French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793). Infect Genet Evol 2020; 80:104209. [PMID: 32004756 PMCID: PMC7615110 DOI: 10.1016/j.meegid.2020.104209] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2019] [Revised: 01/24/2020] [Accepted: 01/26/2020] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
The French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793) was assassinated in 1793 in his bathtub, where he was trying to find relief from the debilitating skin disease he was suffering from. At the time of his death, Marat was annotating newspapers, which got stained with his blood and were subsequently preserved by his sister. We extracted and sequenced DNA from the blood stain and also from another section of the newspaper, which we used for comparison. Results from the human DNA sequence analyses were compatible with a heterogeneous ancestry of Marat, with his mother being of French origin and his father born in Sardinia. Metagenomic analyses of the non-human reads uncovered the presence of fungal, bacterial and low levels of viral DNA. Relying on the presence/absence of microbial species in the samples, we could cast doubt on several putative infectious agents that have been previously hypothesised as the cause of his condition but for which we detect not a single sequencing read. Conversely, some of the species we detect are uncommon as environmental contaminants and may represent plausible infective agents. Based on all the available evidence, we hypothesize that Marat may have suffered from a fungal infection (seborrheic dermatitis), possibly superinfected with bacterial opportunistic pathogens.
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Affiliation(s)
- Toni de-Dios
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), 08003 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Lucy van Dorp
- UCL Genetics Institute, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
| | - Philippe Charlier
- Département de la Recherche et de l'Enseignement, Musée du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, 75007 Paris, France; Université Paris-Saclay (UVSQ), Laboratory Anthropology, Archaeology, Biology (LAAB), 78180 Montigny-le-bretonneux, France
| | - Sofia Morfopoulou
- UCL Genetics Institute, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK; Division of Infection and Immunity, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Esther Lizano
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), 08003 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Celine Bon
- Département Hommes, Natures, Sociétés, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 75116 Paris, France
| | | | - Marina Alvarez-Estape
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), 08003 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Tomas Marquès-Bonet
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), 08003 Barcelona, Spain; Catalan Institution of Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), 08010 Barcelona, Spain; CNAG-CRG, Centre for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), 08036 Barcelona, Spain; Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain
| | - François Balloux
- UCL Genetics Institute, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Carles Lalueza-Fox
- Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), 08003 Barcelona, Spain
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