RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 The 5300-year-old Helicobacter pylori genome of the Iceman JF Science JO Science FD American Association for the Advancement of Science SP 162 OP 165 DO 10.1126/science.aad2545 VO 351 IS 6269 A1 Maixner, Frank A1 Krause-Kyora, Ben A1 Turaev, Dmitrij A1 Herbig, Alexander A1 Hoopmann, Michael R. A1 Hallows, Janice L. A1 Kusebauch, Ulrike A1 Vigl, Eduard Egarter A1 Malfertheiner, Peter A1 Megraud, Francis A1 O’Sullivan, Niall A1 Cipollini, Giovanna A1 Coia, Valentina A1 Samadelli, Marco A1 Engstrand, Lars A1 Linz, Bodo A1 Moritz, Robert L. A1 Grimm, Rudolf A1 Krause, Johannes A1 Nebel, Almut A1 Moodley, Yoshan A1 Rattei, Thomas A1 Zink, Albert YR 2016 UL http://science.sciencemag.org/content/351/6269/162.abstract AB Five thousand years ago in the European Alps, a man was shot by an arrow, then clubbed to death. His body was subsequently mummified by ice until glacier retreat exhumed him in 1991. Subsequently, this ancient corpse has provided a trove of intriguing information about copper-age Europeans. Now, Maixner et al. have identified the human pathogen Helicobacter pylori within the mummy's stomach contents. The strain the “Iceman” hosted appears to most closely resemble pathogenic Asian strains found today in Central and Southern Asia.Science, this issue p. 162The stomach bacterium Helicobacter pylori is one of the most prevalent human pathogens. It has dispersed globally with its human host, resulting in a distinct phylogeographic pattern that can be used to reconstruct both recent and ancient human migrations. The extant European population of H. pylori is known to be a hybrid between Asian and African bacteria, but there exist different hypotheses about when and where the hybridization took place, reflecting the complex demographic history of Europeans. Here, we present a 5300-year-old H. pylori genome from a European Copper Age glacier mummy. The “Iceman” H. pylori is a nearly pure representative of the bacterial population of Asian origin that existed in Europe before hybridization, suggesting that the African population arrived in Europe within the past few thousand years.