What did Beethoven’s hair say about its genome in 2023?

Hair curl Ludwig van Beethoven made in 2023, that is, more than 220 years later, interesting conclusions about the musician’s genome and the exact causes of his death.

A team of researchers published in the March 22 issue of Current Biology partly granted his wish by analyzing the DNA they picked up and reconstructed from strands of his hair.

“Our main goal was to shed light on Beethoven’s health problems, including progressive hearing loss that began between the ages of 20 and 20 and eventually led to him becoming functionally deaf in 1818.” , said Johannes Krause of the Max Institute. Center for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

“We couldn’t find the exact cause of Beethoven’s deafness or gastrointestinal problems,” says Krause. “However, we found a number of significant genetic risk factors for liver disease. We also found signs of infection with the hepatitis B virus at least a few months before the last illness of the composer. It probably contributed to his death.”

Beethoven’s Y chromosome does not match that of any of the five modern relatives who bear the same surname and who, based on genealogical records, share a common ancestor with Beethoven’s paternal line. The find points to an extramarital “event” somewhere in the generations on the part of Beethoven’s father.

“This finding suggests illegitimate paternity in his paternal line between the conception of Hendrick van Beethoven in Campenhout, Belgium, in 1572, and the conception of Ludwig van Beethoven seven generations later, in 1770, in Bonn, Germany,” says Tristan. University of Cambridge, UK.

According to Begg, the DNA extracted from Beethoven’s hair is genetically most similar to that of people living in present-day North Rhine-Westphalia, consistent with Beethoven’s known German ancestry. Future studies of Beethoven’s samples collected over time may help figure out when he was infected with hepatitis B.