A DNA analysis of 2,000-year-old teeth unearthed from an Italian graveyard has offered hard evidence that malaria existed during the Roman Empire, researchers said Monday. The findings are based on mitochondrial DNA — genetic material inherited from one's mother — extracted from teeth belonging to 58 adults and 10 children at three imperial-period Italian cemeteries, their report in the journal Current Biology said. Two of the adults in the cemeteries, which date to the 1st and 3rd centuries, were found to have genomic evidence of malaria.
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DNA offers hard evidence of malaria in Roman Empire
