Ancient Borrelia genomes document the evolutionary history of louse-borne relapsing fever
Swali, P. Booth, T. Tan, C.C.S. McCabe, J. Anastasiadou, K. Barrington, C. Borrini, M. Bricking, A. Buckberry, Jo Büster, L.
Swali, P.
Booth, T.
Tan, C.C.S.
McCabe, J.
Anastasiadou, K.
Barrington, C.
Borrini, M.
Bricking, A.
Buckberry, Jo
Büster, L.
Publication Date
2025-05
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© 2025 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.
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2025-03-06
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Abstract
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 Borrelia recurrentis 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 B. recurrentis 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.
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Swali P, Booth T, Tan CCS et al (2025) Ancient Borrelia genomes document the evolutionary history of louse-borne relapsing fever. Science. 388(6749).
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