RNA Sequencing of Ancient Barley Virus Sheds Light on Crusades Activities

Researchers at the University of Warwick have successfully sequenced the RNA genome of Barley Stripe Mosaic Virus (BSMV) found in a 750-year-old barley grain found at a site near the River Nile in modern-day Egypt. Ancient RNA genomes have not been sequenced before as RNA breaks down more rapidly than DNA. However, in extremely dry conditions, such as those at the site in Qasr Ibrim in Lower Nubia where the barley was found, RNA can be better preserved.

The team traced the evolution of BSMV to a probable origin of around 2,000 years ago, but potentially much further back to the domestication of barley in the Near East around 11,000 years ago. BSMV is transmitted through seed-to-seed contact and it is likely to originally have been transferred from the wild grass population to an early cultivated form of barley while the seeds were stored. The researchers believe that the Medieval BSMV genome came from a time of rapid expansion of the plant disease in the Near East and Europe and this coincided with the tumult of the Crusades.

The researchers believe that the massive war effort could have caused the virus to spread, fuelled by an intensification of farming to feed the armies engaged in the campaign. This made contact with cultivated barley and wild grass more likely, providing opportunities for the virus to ‘jump' into the crop.

For more details about this story, read the news release available at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/rna_sequencing_of/.