Salmonella entericagenomes recovered from victims of a major 16th century epidemic in Mexico

Abstract

AbstractIndigenous populations of the Americas experienced high mortality rates during the early contact period as a result of infectious diseases, many of which were introduced by Europeans. Most of the pathogenic agents that caused these outbreaks remain unknown. Using a metagenomic tool called MALT to search for traces of ancient pathogen DNA, we were able to identifySalmonella entericain individuals buried in an early contact era epidemic cemetery at Teposcolula-Yucundaa, Oaxaca in southern Mexico. This cemetery is linked to the 1545-1550 CE epidemic locally known as “cocoliztli”, the cause of which has been debated for over a century. Here we present two reconstructed ancient genomes forSalmonella entericasubsp.entericaserovar Paratyphi C, a bacterial cause of enteric fever. We propose thatS.Paratyphi C contributed to the population decline during the 1545cocoliztlioutbreak in Mexico.One Sentence SummaryGenomic evidence of enteric fever identified in an indigenous population from early contact period Mexico.