Researchers isolated 10 genomes of human parvovirus B19 (B19V)--a common human pathogen--from approximately 500-year-old to 6,900-year-old dental and skeletal remains of individuals from Eurasia and Greenland, revealing the pathogen's long-term association with humans; phylogenetic analysis of B19V genotypes revealed that the pathogen evolved significantly slower than previously thought, findings demonstrating the utility of ancient viral sequences in studies of virus evolution and phylogenetics.
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Article #18-04921: "Ancient human parvovirus B19 in Eurasia reveals its long-term association with humans," by Barbara Mühlemann et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: Terry Jones, University of Cambridge, UNITED KINGDOM; e-mail: tcj25@cam.ac.uk
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences