Pre-Columbian treponemes clarify worldwide spread of treponematosis

Syphilis dramatically hit Europe at the end of the fifteen century before spreading to other continents. Yet the origin of the sudden pandemic in the Old World remains debated, in particular because the leading Columbus hypothesis of a New World origin of historical syphilis in Europe lacks paleomicrobiological confirmation. Here we screened a worldwide set of >1,700 ancient humans and identified ancient Treponema pallidum strains in two pre-Columbian child sacrifices from Tlatelolco, Mexico. Over 12,000 Treponema-specific reads were recovered to define a novel Treponema pallidum ancient population: Treponema pallidum str. tlatelolcoensis. Phylogenetics show that this population displays ancestral features but also bears the genetic building blocks of disease-causing modern Treponema pallidum subspecies, hence demonstrating how pre-Colombian Americas were the source of worldwide spread of treponematosis.