Ancient <i>Borrelia</i> genomes document the evolutionary history of louse-borne relapsing fever
Several bacterial pathogens have transitioned from tick-borne to louse-borne transmission, which often involves genome reduction and increasing virulence. However, the timing of such transitions remains unclear. We sequenced four ancient <i>Borrelia recurrentis</i> genomes, the agent of louse-borne relapsing fever, dating from 2300 to 600 years ago. We estimated the divergence from its closest tick-borne relative to 6000 to 4000 years ago, which suggests an emergence coinciding with human lifestyle changes such as the advent of wool-based textiles. Pan-genome analysis indicated that much of the evolution characteristic of <i>B. recurrentis</i> had occurred by ~2300 years ago, though further gene turnover, particularly in plasmid partitioning, persisted until ~1000 years ago. Our findings provide a direct genomic chronology of the evolution of this specialized vector-borne pathogen.
Authors
- Kevin Cootes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9791-1702)
- Pooja Swali (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8301-8649)
- Kyriaki Anastasiadou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8033-6070)
- Graham Mullan
- Leo Speidel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4644-8033)
- Rea Carlin
- Lindsey Büster (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4121-9431)
- Alexandre Gilardet (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4851-3051)
- Monica Kelly (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7075-1290)
- Christopher Barrington (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1281-2658)
- Jo Buckberry
- Frankie Tait (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-1864-5867)
- Richard Madgwick (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4396-3566)
- Matteo Borrini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3863-4992)
- Ian Armit (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8669-3810)
- Marina Silva (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3756-0920)
- Adelle Bricking (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6744-8254)
- Mia Williams (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1940-6815)
- Fiona Petchey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3308-9983)
- Maximiliano G. Gutiérrez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3199-0337)
- Thomas J. Booth (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8731-818X)
- Linda Wilson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4175-7125)
- Lucy van Dorp (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6211-2310)
- Pontus Skoglund (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-5913)
- Isabelle Glocke
- Joel D. Irish (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7857-8847)
- Jesse McCabe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-2401-256X)
- Cedric Tan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3536-8465)
- Satu Valoriani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8070-9682)
- Megan King (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1309-5857)
- Adelina Teoaca
- Jessica Peto
Institutions
- Canterbury Christ Church University (GB)
- University of Bradford (GB)
- University of Exeter (GB)
- Canterbury Archaeological Trust (GB)
- The Francis Crick Institute (GB)
- University of Bristol (GB)
- Cheshire West and Chester (GB)
- RIKEN (JP)
- Genomics (United Kingdom) (GB)
- Centre for Palaeogenetics (SE)
- Institute of Genetics (HU)
- National Museum Wales (GB)
- University College London (GB)
- University of York (GB)
- University of Waikato (NZ)
- Liverpool John Moores University (GB)
- University of Reading (GB)
- Cardiff University (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science
- Published
- 2025-05-22
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adr2147
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Vector-borne infectious diseases
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 14.33
Funders
- Vallee Foundation
- Wellcome Trust
- Francis Crick Institute
- UK Research and Innovation
- Cancer Research UK
- European Commission
- University of Bristol
- Liverpool John Moores University
- Medical Research Council