TY - JOUR AU - Sabin, Susanna AU - Herbig, Alexander AU - Vågene, Åshild J. AU - Ahlström, Torbjörn AU - Bozovic, Gracijela AU - Arcini, Caroline AU - Kühnert, Denise AU - Bos, Kirsten I. PY - 2020 DA - 2020/08/10 TI - A seventeenth-century Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome supports a Neolithic emergence of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex JO - Genome Biology SP - 201 VL - 21 IS - 1 AB - Although tuberculosis accounts for the highest mortality from a bacterial infection on a global scale, questions persist regarding its origin. One hypothesis based on modern Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) genomes suggests their most recent common ancestor followed human migrations out of Africa approximately 70,000 years before present. However, studies using ancient genomes as calibration points have yielded much younger dates of less than 6000 years. Here, we aim to address this discrepancy through the analysis of the highest-coverage and highest-quality ancient MTBC genome available to date, reconstructed from a calcified lung nodule of Bishop Peder Winstrup of Lund (b. 1605–d. 1679). SN - 1474-760X UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-020-02112-1 DO - 10.1186/s13059-020-02112-1 ID - Sabin2020 ER -