A deep dive into the toilets of the past has given us a glimpse into the relationship between humans and worms.
Researchers have reconstructed the genome of one of the oldest known human parasites by taking genetic material from a range of sources, includingarchaeologically-defined latrines used by the Vikings up to 2,500 years ago.
The findings show that the whipworm has been living with humans for at least 50,000 years.
The researchers said that the new information on the biology and behavior of the parasites will help develop ways to stop its spread.
Christian Kapel is a zoologist at the University of Copenhagen.
The ability to design more effective anti-worm drugs that can be used to prevent the spread of the whipworm in the world's poor regions is made easier by our mapping of the whipworm.
Although the worm is rare in industrialized parts of the world, it can be found in regions with poor sanitary conditions.
Eggs can be passed from one person to another through the fecal-oral route.
Female worms will lay eggs at a rate of up to 20,000 a day once they reach maturity. They can live up to a year, so they can produce a lot of offspring, which are then thrown away.
Eggs are laid in the ground and grow over a period of three months. Eggs can survive in the wild for even longer if they are eaten by a new host.
Their life cycle is adapted to live in soil for as long as possible.
The team was able to sequence ancient DNA from ancient human poop because of the soil's long life. The eggs have a shell of hard Chitin, which is adapted to survive in the soil for a long time.
The researchers were able to sequence the eggs from the sites of Viking settlements in the Nordic countries, as well as sites in the Netherlands andLatvia.
The 17 ancient samples that were studied under the microscope were then sieved out of the surrounding poop fossil matrix and subjected to genetic analysis.
The team compared contemporary samples from humans and monkeys to the ancient genomes.
Kapel says that the whipworm seems to have spread from Africa to the rest of the world around 55,000 years ago.
According to the results, the parasites have adapted in ways to work with the human body in order to remain undetected, live out their life cycle and spread to as many people as possible.
It's1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556 The pig whipworm has been shown to increase the diversity of healthy gutbacteria and decrease the number of bad gutbacteria in pigs.
The consequences of a severe infection are more unpleasant and can affect healthy growth. New tools for preventing this may be provided by this research.
Kapel says that during the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, one didn't have very sanitary conditions.
This gave the whipworm more chances to spread. It is very rare in the industrialized part of the world today. Favorable conditions for spreading are still present in less developed areas of the world.
The research has appeared in a journal.
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