Ten millennia of hepatitis B virus evolution

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been infecting humans for millennia and remains a global health problem, but its past diversity and dispersal routes are largely unknown. We generated HBV genomic data from 137 Eurasians and Native Americans dated between similar to 10,500 and similar to 400 years ago. We date the most recent common ancestor of all HBV lineages to between similar to 20,000 and 12,000 years ago, with the virus present in European and South American hunter-gatherers during the early Holocene. After the European Neolithic transition, Mesolithic HBV strains were replaced by a lineage likely disseminated by early farmers that prevailed throughout western Eurasia for similar to 4000 years, declining around the end of the 2nd millennium BCE. The only remnant of this prehistoric HBV diversity is the rare genotype G, which appears to have reemerged during the HIV pandemic.Molecular Technology and Informatics for Personalised Medicine and Healt

Ten millennia of hepatitis B virus evolution

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been infecting humans for millennia and remains a global health problem, but its past diversity and dispersal routes are largely unknown. We generated HBV genomic data from 137 Eurasians and Native Americans dated between ~10,500 and ~400 years ago. We date the most recent common ancestor of all HBV lineages to between ~20,000 and 12,000 years ago, with the virus present in European and South American hunter-gatherers during the early Holocene. After the European Neolithic transition, Mesolithic HBV strains were replaced by a lineage likely disseminated by early farmers that prevailed throughout western Eurasia for ~4000 years, declining around the end of the 2nd millennium BCE. The only remnant of this prehistoric HBV diversity is the rare genotype G, which appears to have reemerged during the HIV pandemic

A human mandible (BH-1) from the Pleistocene deposits of Mala Balanica cave (Sićevo Gorge, Niš, Serbia)

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MESOLITHIC AND NEOLITHIC (DIS)CONTINUITIES IN THE DANUBE GORGES: NEW AMS DATES FROM PADINA AND HAJDUCKA VODENICA (SERBIA)

In this paper we present 17 new AMS dates from the Mesolithic–Early Neolithic sites of Padina and Hajdućka Vodenica and discuss the continuity and nature of occupation at them in the context of the Mesolithic–Neolithic transformations in the Danube Gorges region (north-central Balkans), c.10000–5500 Cal BC. The dates indicate long occupation sequences and help refine the stratigraphies of the two sites. They, also enable us to date architectural features, burial positions and bone/antler tools, and to further our understanding of the impact of the noted aquatic reservoir effect on radiocarbon dating of human and dog remains from this region. Finally, these dates suggest continuity of occupation at sites other than Lepenski Vir in the Danube Gorges at the time of the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition, c.6300–5950 Cal BC