第1777期:DNA from Beethoven Provides Details about His Health

Researchers who examined DNA from famous German composer Ludwig van Beethoven have learned new details about his health. The DNA – which came from Beethoven’s hair – did not provide a cause for his deafness. But the samples did find that he had a genetic risk for liver disease. The DNA also showed evidence that Beethoven was infected with the virus hepatitis B in the last months of his life. The virus damages the liver. The findings recently appeared in a study in the publication Current Biology.

对德国著名作曲家路德维希·范·贝多芬 (Ludwig van Beethoven) 的 DNA 进行检查的研究人员了解了有关他健康状况的新细节。来自贝多芬头发的 DNA 并没有提供他失聪的原因。但样本确实发现他有患肝病的遗传风险。 DNA 还表明贝多芬在生命的最后几个月感染了乙型肝炎病毒。病毒会损害肝脏。该发现最近出现在《当代生物学》杂志的一项研究中。

The findings suggest Beethoven’s liver issues were enough to cause the liver failure widely believed to have killed him. The composer was also believed to have been a heavy drinker of alcohol, which can affect the liver.March 26 is the 196th anniversary of Beethoven’s death in Vienna, Austria. The composer himself wrote that he wanted doctors to study his health problems after he died. Axel Schmidt is a geneticist at Germany’s University Hospital Bonn who helped lead the research. He told The Associated Press it is established that Beethoven’s sicknesses had “sometimes very much limited his creative work.” Schmidt added that for many doctors, “it has always been a mystery” what exactly killed him.

研究结果表明，贝多芬的肝脏问题足以导致人们普遍认为导致他死亡的肝功能衰竭。这位作曲家也被认为是酗酒者，这会影响肝脏。 3 月 26 日是贝多芬在奥地利维也纳逝世 196 周年。作曲家本人写道，他希望医生在他死后研究他的健康问题。 Axel Schmidt 是德国波恩大学医院的遗传学家，他帮助领导了这项研究。他告诉美联社，贝多芬的疾病“有时极大地限制了他的创作”，这一点已得到证实。施密特补充说，对于许多医生来说，究竟是什么杀死了他，“一直是个谜”。

Since his death, scientists have long tried to piece together Beethoven's medical history. And they have offered a series of possible explanations for his many health conditions.But new examination technology and methods now make it possible to revisit health and death information by studying ancient DNA. The DNA samples were collected from locks of hair that had been cut from Beethoven’s head. After cleaning Beethoven's hair one piece at a time, scientists put the pieces into a substance and collected small amounts of DNA, said study author Tristan James Alexander Begg. He was a writer of the study and is a biology professor at the University of Cambridge.

自从他死后，科学家们一直在努力拼凑贝多芬的病史。并且他们对他的诸多健康状况提出了一系列可能的解释。但是现在新的检查技术和方法使得通过研究古代DNA来重温健康和死亡信息成为可能。 DNA 样本是从贝多芬头上剪下的一绺头发中收集的。研究作者特里斯坦·詹姆斯·亚历山大·贝格 (Tristan James Alexander Begg) 说，在一次一根地清洗贝多芬的头发后，科学家们将这些碎片放入一种物质中并收集了少量的 DNA。他是这项研究的作者，也是剑桥大学的生物学教授。

Getting enough genetic material was difficult, said another writer of the study, Johannes Krause. He is a paleogeneticist at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Krause said the process was difficult because DNA in hair gets cut up into very small pieces.But finally, after using up almost 3 meters of Beethoven’s hair, the team was able to piece together a genome that they could test for signs of genetic disease, Krause said. The question of what caused Beethoven’s hearing loss remains unanswered, said Ohio State University's Dr. Avraham Z. Cooper. He was not involved in the study. Cooper said that mystery might continue forever because genetics can only show us half of the “nature and nurture” elements that make up our health. However, Cooper added that the mystery is part of what makes Beethoven so interesting and popular: “I think the fact that we can’t know is OK,” he said.

该研究的另一位作者约翰内斯克劳斯说，获得足够的遗传物质很困难。他是德国马克斯普朗克进化人类学研究所的古遗传学家。克劳斯说这个过程很困难，因为头发中的 DNA 会被切成非常小的碎片。但最终，在用完贝多芬近 3 米的头发后，该团队能够拼凑出一个基因组，他们可以用它来检测遗传疾病的迹象，克劳斯说。俄亥俄州立大学的 Avraham Z. Cooper 博士说，造成贝多芬听力损失的原因仍未得到解答。他没有参与这项研究。库珀说，这个谜可能会永远存在，因为遗传学只能向我们展示构成我们健康的“先天和后天”元素的一半。然而，库珀补充说，这个谜团是贝多芬如此有趣和受欢迎的部分原因：“我认为我们无法知道的事实是可以的，”他说。