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STD's Among the Nephites?
Earlier this week the Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology went to Barry Marshall and J. Robin Warren for the discovery that the bacterium Helicobacter pylori can cause ulcers. Their hypothesis was not well received at first, but they continued to build support for it--including by Marshall fulfilling Koch's Postulates on himself by swallowing the bacteria, giving himself gastritis, and then curing himself with antibiotics.
About half of the world's population is infected with the bacteria; only a small percentage move on to develop gastritis, ulcers, or cancer. Carl Zimmer explains that H. pylori is a useful tool for investigating human migrations. Changes in the genome (micro-evolution, if you will) ought to correspond with the movement of humans.
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The Molecular Ecology article that Zimmer links to is a review article about this kind of investigation. Not all microbes are well-suited for this kind of study, but in addtion to H. pylori another microbe that is useful is Human Papillomavirus (HPV), particularly the sexually transmitted ones. HPV types 16 and 18 are notorious for their involvement in cervical cancer. Researchers have looked at these HPVs around the world and found that they cluster into groups that are consistent with the current view of human migration. (Origin in Africa, movement to Europe and Asia, and from Asia into the Americas.)
This paragraph in the article caught my eye:A closer look at isolates from Native Americans also revealed unexpected results. Although an association between isolates from Greenland Eskimos and lineage E [Euoropean] was not surprising due to the proximity between Greenland and Europe, the same link was observed in many isolates from Navajo, Pueblo and Amazon Indians! These latter ethnic groups originated from North Asiatic emigrants via the Bering Strait and should therefore be associated with the AA [Asian/American] lineage. Even more surprising was the isolation of the Af1 [African 1] lineage from one Inuit and the Af2 [African 2] lineage from two Navajos. However, despite these discrepancies and possible [lateral gene transfer], the population structure of HPV-18 viruses does largely mirror human migrations reliably and shows reasonable congruence between independent genes within and between subtypes, unlike many other viruses.
Now there are probably ten very good explanations for why the African lineages have shown up in Native Americans. But of course, given our belief in the Book of Mormon, any hints of pre-Columbian contact with the Old World are of special interest.
Overall, the human and microbial genetics support an Asian origin of Native Americans. It would be irresponsible to draw any conclusions about these HPV anomalies--especially any about support for the Book of Mormon. I only bring it up as a matter of interest.
Having said that, I would pay money to hear someone get up in church and say, "There is evidence that the Nephites brought a sexually transmitted disease to America."
(The original research paper is available here.)
5 comments:
Best post title, ever.
How much would you pay? If you paid me enough I would do it. Naturally, I would blame it on Laman and Lemuel, that would go over pretty well.
But, seriously folks, there are the old tales of the guy in Columbus' crew suffering from gonorrhea-like symptoms, wasnt that in COlumbus' diary? Leading various people to speculate that is what introduced it to the New World. Wouldnt one assume these Old World diseases only got to the New World via relatively modern contact? The whole Jared Diamond _Guns, Germs & Steel_ thing. How long would a disease, STD or not, need to be present among a population before it became widespread and therefore show up in random DNA samples? That would depend entirely on the mobility of individuals, how virulent the disease, and so on. I would have to assume making any kind of broad assumptions would be stymied by all the minutiae of possible mitigating details.
But, now, this question makes me wonder about the whole history of STDs. How far back can we trace with any certainty the existence of STDs?
In this case the HPV was from clinical samples.
STDs are not unqiue to humans--there are animals that have their own versions. For example, from the paper, "The three ape and monkey papillomaviruses that are known today are more related to some of the genital HPV types than these human viruses are to one another. This is most likely because they had diverged before Homo sapiens evolved."
Presumably this is a reflection of long-term host-pathogen relationships through evolution. There have probably been STDs for about as long as there has been sex.
I think it would be difficult to come to the above conclusion (Nephite/Lamanites bringing the african HPV type to america) with this article. Only 3 of the samples were african type, two were pueblo and the other eskimo (not exactly central america and I doubt the pueblo indians had any contact with the central american populations from 600 bc to the present). The majority, including the south american indigenous populations were european or asian type HPV.
What they did not show was what HPV type is prevalent in the middle east. Ony two palestinian samples were tested, and one had a european type and the other african. One would have to test more from this area to see if african type is indeed the most prevalent.
I would think a more likely outcome of a Nephite/Lamanite migration would be bringing a european type of HPV to america. I would bet the middle east HPV is closer to european than african, as it is in mitochondrial DNA.
Good points, Chas.
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