[E319]Iceman Otzi Died With A Bellyache
Iceman Otzi Died With A Bellyache
Researchers were able to determine the genome[ˈdʒi:noʊm][基因组;染色体组] of stomach[ˈstʌmək][胃; 腹部] bacteria[bækˈtɪriə][细菌] that infected the famous Iceman at the time of his death, in the process giving us clues about ancient human migrations[maɪˈɡreʃən][迁移，移居].
奥兹冰人木乃伊是一具有5300年历史的木乃伊，他在一个冰冷的史前世界被谋杀。这具木乃伊所在的位置让人们推断：这个冰人不是因为意外死在那里的。也许奥兹冰人是最古老的谋杀案受害者。
Otzi—or as he’s also known, the Iceman—was discovered frozen in the Alps in 1991 by two German tourists. The 5,300-year-old body has been analyzed in various ways and been the subject of numerous scientific publications. And now it’s been looked at again. Because scientists realized that the contents of the Iceman’s stomach[ˈstʌmək][胃; 腹部] were still intact[ɪn'tækt][完整无缺的，未经触动的，未受损伤的; 原封不动的]. Which gave them the chance to look for evidence of the common stomach[ˈstʌmək][胃; 腹部] bacteria[bækˈtɪriə][细菌] Helicobacter pylori[幽门缠绕杆菌；幽门螺杆菌], or H. pylori. What they found tells us more about Otzi—and more about how Otzi’s ancestors came to Europe. The study is in the journal Science.
The researchers were able to extract genes from H. pylori in the stomach[ˈstʌmək][胃; 腹部] to produce the oldest known genome[ˈdʒi:noʊm][基因组;染色体组] sequence of a pathogen[ˈpæθədʒən][病菌，病原体]. The Iceman seems to have been infected with a virulent[ˈvɪrjələnt, ˈvɪrə-][剧毒的，致命的] strain[stren][(有毒)菌株]. So in his last days on Earth, Otzi probably had one bad bellyache[ˈbɛliˌek][腹痛].
“The strain had already reacted[riˈækt][产生不良反应;过敏] with the Iceman's immune system[免疫系统]. This we could show. So we showed the presence of marker proteins[标记蛋白] which we see today in patients infected with Helicobacter.” The University of Vienna’s Frank Maixner.
It’s estimated that more than half the world’s human population harbors various strains of the ulcer[]-causing bacteria[致病菌]. And different strains are associated with different places on the globe.
“We use then Helicobacter as a surrogate[ˈsɜ:rəgət][代用品，代替] for what humans were doing at various stages of our pre-history.” Yoshan Moodley from South Africa’s University of Venda.
Europeans today mostly harbor H. pylori that’s a mix of Indian and North African strains. But Otzi’s bacteria matched only the Indian variant[ˈveriənt][变体].
“This one genome[ˈdʒi:noʊm][基因组;染色体组] has put things into wonderful perspective for us, answered this question that we've been trying to answer for years. We can say now that the waves of migration[移民浪潮] that brought these African Helicobacter pylori into Europe had not occurred or at least not occurred in earnest by the time the Ice Man was around.”
That finding does not mean that North Africans themselves migrated into Europe after the time of the Iceman. The new strain may have evolved in the Middle East and then been introduced by later waves of farmers migrating out of the Fertile Crescent[肥沃新月地带]. More clues into human migration from H. pylori genes may be forthcoming. Just as soon as we find more perfectly preserved stomachs in long-frozen bodies.
肥沃新月地带,西亚的古文化发源地。包括西北—东南走向的美索不达米亚，以及略作东北—西南走向的西亚裂谷带中、北段。
—Cynthia Graber
From 60-Second Science