\n<\/p>\n
January 22, 2026<\/p>\n
3 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The bacterium behind syphilis has a far more ancient history than we thought<\/p>\n Treponema pallidum, a microorganism that can cause a deadly sexually transmitted disease in humans, may have a far more ancient lineage than scientists once thought<\/p>\n By Emma Gometz edited by Claire Cameron<\/span><\/p>\n RUSLANAS BARANAUSKAS\/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images<\/p>\n Syphilis has long played a role in human history: some think that notable figures like Dracula author Bram Stoker and Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin had the disease. And scientists know that the bacterium that causes syphilis, Treponema pallidum, has been plaguing humans for centuries, if not millennia. But there are competing theories about the exact origin of syphilis and other treponemal infections, such as bejel and yaws.<\/p>\n The first recorded venereal syphilis outbreak occurred in 15th-century Europe, where it supposedly had been brought over by colonizers of the Americas. But scientists have found strains of Treponema in the remains of Europeans who lived before Christopher Columbus\u2019s time, and it\u2019s unclear when the bacterium evolved to be primarily sexually transmitted.<\/p>\n Now a new study published today in Science suggests that these diseases may be far more ancient than scientists suspected. Researchers sequenced the genome of a strain of T. pallidum that was discovered in the bones of a man who lived some 5,500 years ago in what is now Colombia. The discovery\u2014the oldest of these microorganisms to be genetically sequenced by some 3,000 years\u2014pushes back the evolutionary time line of these diseases and offers clues to where they came from.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n The discovery of the microorganism\u2019s DNA in the man\u2019s bones was made \u201ctotally by chance,\u201d says Lars Fehren-Schmitz, one of the study\u2019s co-authors and an anthropologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz.<\/p>\n Fehren-Schmitz and his colleagues compared their find with both modern and other historical genomes of T. pallidum and found that this strain of the bacterium emerged far earlier than known subspecies.<\/p>\n The finding suggests treponemal diseases were likely much more diverse thousands of years ago than they are today, says Nasreen Broomandkhoshbacht, one of the study\u2019s co-authors and a geneticist at the University of Vermont. \u201cThat opens up the question of \u2018Were there an even greater diversity of the ways that this group of diseases could impact people and maybe different hosts?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The ancientness of this strain also indicates that the bacterium was already well evolved to take up residence in humans by that time, says Fernando Gonz\u00e1lez-Candelas, a genetics professor at the University of Valencia in Spain, who was not involved in the new study. \u201cIt points to coevolution of Treponema, not just the treponematosis [treponemal diseases] but the Treponema genus, with humans older than previously suspected,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n The most well-known treponemal disease, venereal syphilis, is primarily sexually transmitted. Its early symptoms include lesions around the infection site, fever and fatigue. And if untreated, it can cause brain damage, heart problems, blindness, and other nerve and bone issues. It\u2019s unclear whether the man carrying the newly sequenced bacterium strain had been infected through sexual contact.<\/p>\n Mapping the spread and evolution of major diseases that have affected humans through history can help paint a picture of how ancient communities lived. In terms of what this finding means for the origins of modern-day syphilis, we know that its current form evolved much later than this strain of Treponema. The jury is still out on exactly when and where that happened.<\/p>\n But what it does show is that the bacterium was present in the Americas far earlier than previously thought\u2014a finding that suggests the history of treponemal diseases is more complex than past theories that suggested European colonialism may have played an outsize role, says Elizabeth Nelson, an assistant professor of anthropology at Southern Methodist University.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were dealing with this way before Europeans arrived,\u201d Nelson says.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" January 22, 2026 3 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm The bacterium behind syphilis has a far more ancient history than we thought Treponema pallidum, a microorganism that can cause a deadly sexually transmitted disease in humans, may have a far more ancient lineage than scientists once thought By Emma Gometz edited by Claire<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[723,22442,2814,145,11698,22443],"class_list":{"0":"post-42643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ancient","9":"tag-bacteriums","10":"tag-genome","11":"tag-history","12":"tag-rewrite","13":"tag-syphilis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
It\u2019s Time to Stand Up for Science<\/h2>\n