A bacterium from 5,000 years ago

Decoding the Iceman's personal genome revealed that he was lactose intolerant and at high risk of cardiovascular disease. But did Utzi have Lyme disease?

Dror Bar-Nir Galileo
A surprise in the ice man's body - 5,000 year old red blood cells

The body of the Tyrolean Iceman (called an iceman because his body was found in ice), known as Oetzi, was found frozen in 1991. The body, which had a deadly arrowhead embedded in its shoulder, was found clothed, with other accompanying details, in the ice, at the Tissengoch pass Tisenjoch in the Ötztal Alps in Italy, near the border with Austria (hence the man's nickname).

Carbon 14 testing to determine the age of the body revealed that Utzi lived (and died) between 3350 and 3100 BC. Otzi's height was about 160 cm, his weight was about 50 kg, his hair was long and dark (probably black) and his skin was decorated with many tattoos (about 50). He may have had a beard. Utzi was about 45 years old when he died.

The Mummy Research Institute
In February 2012, Albert Zink from the Institute for the Study of Mummies and Ice People at the European Academy in Bolzano, Italy, with colleagues from other research institutes in Europe, reported the complete decoding of the sequence of his personal genome, the mitochondrial genome, and other non-human genomes found in the body.

Decoding the mitochondrial genome made it possible to find his relatives living today in another part of Italy (in the islands of the Tyrrhenian Sea - between Sicily and Corsica). The data from the personal genome made it possible to identify some of his features that were not preserved over the years: his eye color (brown) and his blood type (O). On top of that, Utzi suffered from lactose intolerance, and was at high risk of developing cardiovascular disease (a risk that did not materialize due to his tragic end). An interesting finding in her body was the discovery of the genome of the coiled bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, which is now known as a bacterium transmitted by Ixodes ticks and the cause of Lyme disease.

Lyme disease
Lyme disease was first described by the doctor Alan Steere (Steere) in 1975, who described a "special" arthritis in which several children from the city of Lyme (Lyme) in the state of Connecticut, United States, became ill. The disease is caused by three different species of bacteria from the genus Borrelia, the best known of which is B. burgdorferi (named after Willy Burgdorfer, who discovered this species of bacteria in 1982).

Around the tick bite, after about ten days of incubation, a red ring develops, which is not painful, and may reach a diameter of seven centimeters. The ring is called "migrating red" (Erythema migrans). The stung person feels flu-like symptoms: weakness, fatigue, headaches, muscle pain, enlarged lymph nodes. The symptoms can last for about a month.

At the same time, immediately after the bite - and sometimes even two years later - additional small rings develop in other skin areas, as well as various inflammations such as meningitis or encephalitis, as well as inflammation of the heart muscle and joints. The arthritis, especially in the knees, can last for years. The brain infections can cause cognitive damage, depression and sleep problems. However, there is almost no mortality from this disease.

It should be noted that prior to the discovery of the bacterium, no physical signs of the disease were reported on the body, and that this is the earliest evidence of the existence of the bacterium that causes this disease. Her question still has no answer is whether Otzi was actually sick with the disease or just carried the bacteria in his body?

Borrelia burgdorferi coils under a microscope (under dark field illumination) CDC

for further reading:

Dror Bar-Nir - On Borrelia coils, relapsing fever, cave fever and Lyme disease
The article Nature Communication: Andreas Keller et al (February 2012), New insights into the Tyrolean Iceman's: origin and phenotype as inferred by whole-genome sequencing, Nature Communications 3