Measles virus and rinderpest virus divergence dated to the sixth century BCE.

Many infectious diseases are thought to have emerged in humans after the Neolithic revolution. Although it is broadly accepted that this also applies to measles, the exact date of emergence for this disease is controversial. We sequenced the genome of a 1912 measles virus and used selection-aware molecular clock modeling to determine the divergence date of measles virus and rinderpest virus. This divergence date represents the earliest possible date for the establishment of measles in human populations. Our analyses show that the measles virus potentially arose as early as the sixth century BCE, possibly coinciding with the rise of large cities. Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.

Citation

Ariane Düx, Sebastian Lequime, Livia Victoria Patrono, Bram Vrancken, Sengül Boral, Jan F Gogarten, Antonia Hilbig, David Horst, Kevin Merkel, Baptiste Prepoint, Sabine Santibanez, Jasmin Schlotterbeck, Marc A Suchard, Markus Ulrich, Navena Widulin, Annette Mankertz, Fabian H Leendertz, Kyle Harper, Thomas Schnalke, Philippe Lemey, Sébastien Calvignac-Spencer. Measles virus and rinderpest virus divergence dated to the sixth century BCE. Science (New York, N.Y.). 2020 Jun 19;368(6497):1367-1370

Mesh Tags

PMID: 32554594

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