Recovery of a medieval Brucella melitensis genome using shotgun metagenomics

Infectious diseases have shaped human populations and societies throughout history. The recovery of pathogen DNA sequences from human remains provides an opportunity to identify and characterize the causes of individual and epidemic infections. By sequencing DNA extracted from medieval human remains en masse through shotgun metagenomics, without target-specific capture or amplification, we have obtained a draft genome sequence of a ~700-year old Brucella melitensis strain. Using a variety of bioinformatics approaches, we have shown that this historical strain is most closely related to recent strains isolated from Italy, confirming the continuity of this zoonotic infection in the region over the centuries.