• DOI:10.1073/PNAS.91.6.2091
Corpus ID: 28642668

Identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA in a pre-Columbian Peruvian mummy.

@article{Salo1994IdentificationOM,
  title={Identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA in a pre-Columbian Peruvian mummy.},
  author={W. Salo and A. Aufderheide and J. Buikstra and T. A. Holcomb},
  journal={Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
  year={1994},
  volume={91 6},
  pages={
          2091-4
        }
}

• W. Salo, A. Aufderheide, +1 author T. A. Holcomb
• Published 1994
• Biology, Medicine
• Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

The existence of tuberculosis in the pre-Columbian Americas is controversial because the morphology of the lesion is not specific, the organism is culturally nonviable in ancient tissues, and nonpathogenic soil mycobacteria can contaminate buried bodies. We report the recovery of DNA unique to Mycobacterium tuberculosis from a lung lesion of a spontaneously mummified, 1000-year-old adult female body in southern Peru. This provides the most specific evidence possible for the pre-Columbian… Expand

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