Molecular Identification of Lice from Pre‐Columbian Mummies
1Unité des Rickettsies CNRS UMR 6020, Faculté de Médecine Université de la Méditerranée, Marseille, France; 2Department of Molecular Biology, University of Wyoming, Laramie; 3New York State Museum, Albany; 4Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville; 5Centro Mallqui, Lima, Perú
Background.
Three distinctly different lineages of head and body lice are known to parasitize humans. One lineage includes head and body lice and is currently worldwide in distribution (type A). The other 2 (types B and C) include only head lice and are geographically restricted. It was hypothesized that head louse phylotypes were exchanged only recently, after European exploration and colonization (after Columbus).
Methods.To determine which louse type or types were found in the Americas before European colonization, we used polymerase chain reaction in 2 laboratories to amplify DNA from 2 genes (Cytb and Cox1) belonging to 1000‐year‐old lice collected from Peruvian mummies.
Results.Only the worldwide type (type A) was found. Therefore, this phylotype was worldwide before European colonization, as type A lice were common in Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Conclusions.The findings of this study show that several phylotypes of head lice have coexisted for centuries in humans and support the claim that type A lice were present in the Americas before the time of Columbus.
Received 10 April 2007; accepted 12 June 2007; electronically published 1 February 2008.
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Online publication date: 1-Aug-2009.
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Online publication date: 1-Sep-2008.
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Online publication date: 1-Feb-2008.
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Potential conflicts of interest: none reported.
Financial support: University of Florida Research Opportunity Seed Fund and the National Science Foundation (grants DBI 0102112, DBI 0445712, and DEB 0555024 to D.L.R.).
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D.R. and D.L.R. contributed equally to this work.