Scientists obtained the genome of the bacterium Treponema pallidum from 5,500-year-old human remains from the Sabana de Bogotá site in Colombia.[1][2][3] This finding represents the oldest known genome of this bacterium in the Americas and extends the genetic history of treponemal diseases by approximately 3,000 years.[1][2] The genome, designated TE1-3, belongs to the species Treponema pallidum, but does not correspond to any of today's subtypes that cause diseases such as syphilis, thrush, or bejel.[1][2][3] Phylogenetic analysis has shown that TE1-3 is a separate branch that diverged before all known modern subtypes arose.[2][3] The bacterium contains the complete set of genetic traits associated with virulence in today's strains.[2] The discovery was made by chance while sequencing an individual's DNA to study the history of human populations, resulting in 1.5 billion fragments of genetic data.[1] Research published in the journal Science confirms the presence of treponemal diseases in the Americas even before the development of agriculture and before European colonization.[2][3]