4000-year-old Mycobacterium lepromatosis genomes from Chile reveal long-establishment of Hansen’s Disease in the Americas

4000-year-old Mycobacterium lepromatosis genomes from Chile reveal long-establishment of Hansen’s Disease in the Americas | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article 4000-year-old Mycobacterium lepromatosis genomes from Chile reveal long-establishment of Hansen’s Disease in the Americas Darío Ramirez, T. Sitter, Sanni Översti, María Herrera-Soto, Nicolás Pastor, and 5 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5776739/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 30 Jun, 2025 Read the published version in Nature Ecology & Evolution → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Mycobacterium lepromatosis is a recently identified cause of Hansen’s Disease, and is associated with the more severe and potentially lethal presentations of diffuse lepromatous leprosy (DLL) and Lucio’s phenomenon (LP). Detection of this infection has been limited to a small number of individuals, leaving much to be learned about its global distribution and transmissibility. Its discovery in wild rodent populations in the United Kingdom and Ireland also raises questions about its zoonotic potential. Here we raise further awareness of this disease via analyses of two exceptionally well preserved M. lepromatosis genomes obtained from 4000-year-old human remains of two adult males from the archaeological sites of El Cerrito and La Herradura in Northern Chile. This formed the basis of genomic comparisons between ancient and modern forms of the pathogen. We demonstrate an unexpected long history of M. lepromatosis in the Americas, which contrasts with the more recent Eurasian history of the closely related Mycobacterium leprae. We offer relevant perspectives on its evolution while providing an incentive for further disease monitoring in both humans and other potential reservoir species in the Americas and elsewhere. Biological sciences/Microbiology/Microbial genetics Social science/Anthropology/Biological anthropology Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files RamirezSupplementaryTablesR1.xlsx Supplementary Tables RamirezSitterSupplementaryMaterialR1.docx Supplementary Information Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 30 Jun, 2025 Read the published version in Nature Ecology & Evolution → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5776739","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":454210943,"identity":"20d4c13c-571f-4a0b-8ba9-e7530b042202","order_by":0,"name":"Darío Ramirez","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8982-2550","institution":"Universidad Nacional de Córdoba","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Darío","middleName":"","lastName":"Ramirez","suffix":""},{"id":454210944,"identity":"804c43fe-bb7e-4981-801a-ba4fbfb0da02","order_by":1,"name":"T. 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