Stone Age hepatitis B virus decoded

(Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History) An international team of scientists led by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the University of Kiel has successfully reconstructed genomes from Stone Age and Medieval European strains of the hepatitis B virus. This unprecedented recovery of ancient virus DNA indicates that hepatitis B was circulating in Europe at least 7,000 years ago.
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - Category: Biology Source Type: news