A study by an International team of scientists suggests that Tuberculosis (TB) originated from humans. Researchers, led by Sebastien Gagneux from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), indicated, using whole-genome sequencing of 259 Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains, that TB mycobacteria originated at least 70,000 years ago in Africa. This was published in the journal Nature Genetics . To the researchers’ surprise, the phylogenetic trees of humans and the TB bacteria showed a very close match. This strongly points to a close relationship between the two.
