Hidden DNA in Ancient Gospel Reveals 3,500-Year History of Deadly Virus
8 Articles
8 Articles
RESEARCHERS have discovered DNA from the sheeppox virus in medieval parchments. The discovery shows that the disease has threatened livestock for more than 3,700 years and helps to understand the evolution of the pathogen.
In old parchments, pathogens of animal diseases can be detected after hundreds of years. A research team discovered this and researched a virus.
Two pages of the York Gospels and a third bound in with it later carry the DNA of the virus that causes sheeppox, and the team that found them pulled a far older genome of that virus out of a sheep molar, radiocarbon dated to between 1875 and 1645 BC, from a Bronze Age settlement in central Kazakhstan
A team led from University College Dublin recovered 21 new genomes of a livestock virus, most of them from sheep teeth and from the pages of medieval books, which are made of animal skin.
The medieval manuscripts preserve genetic traces of a virus that causes sheeppox and has affected the herds of Eurasia for over 3,700 years. The team analyzed manuscripts from Britain and continental Europe, together with older archaeological remains of sheep from the Bronze Age. Together, these samples allow to reconstruct the evolution of the sheeppox virus, or SPPV, from about 1,700 B.C. to the beginning of the Modern Age. In the new study, p…
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 50% of the sources lean Left, 50% of the sources lean Right
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
