title: Evidence of sympatry of clade a and clade B head lice in a pre-Columbian Chilean mummy from Camarones.
abstract: Three different lineages of head lice are known to parasitize humans. Clade A, which is currently worldwide in distribution, was previously demonstrated to be present in the Americas before the time of Columbus. The two other types of head lice are geographically restricted to America and Australia for clade B and to Africa and Asia for clade C. In this study, we tested two operculated nits from a 4,000-year-old Chilean mummy of Camarones for the presence of the partial Cytb mitochondrial gene (270 bp). Our finding shows that clade B head lice were present in America before the arrival of the European colonists.
authors.affiliation: Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes: URMITE, Aix Marseille Université, UMR CNRS 7278, IRD 198, INSERM 1095. Faculté de Médecine, 27 Bd Jean Moulin, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Amina
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Boutellis
authors.forename: Rezak
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Drali
authors.forename: Mario A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Rivera
authors.forename: Kosta Y
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Mumcuoglu
authors.forename: Didier
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Raoult
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa; D000569:Americas; D000818:Animals; D001208:Asia; D001315:Australia; D001483:Base Sequence; D002677:Chile; D045303:Cytochromes b / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D050259:Genes, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions; D006801:Humans; D010373:Lice Infestations / Q000469:parasitology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009106:Mummies / Q000469:parasitology*; D010164:Paleopathology; D010374:Pediculus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D045303:Cytochromes b