DNA from Beethoven Provides Details about His Health

Researchers who examined DNA¹ 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 genetic² 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.

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.

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.

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 Evolutionary³ Anthropology⁴. 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 remains⁵ 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 nurture⁶" 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.

Words in This Story

composer – n. someone who writes music

sample – n. a small amount of something that gives you information about the thing it was taken from

author – n. someone who writes, originates or creates something

paleogeneticist – n. a geneticist whose specialty⁷ is paleogenetics

genome – n. the complete set of genetic material of a human, animal, plant or other living thing

nurture – v. to take care of, feed and protect someone or something, especially young children or plants

1 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

2 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

3 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

4 anthropology   

n.人类学

参考例句：

• I believe he has started reading up anthropology.我相信他已开始深入研究人类学。
• Social anthropology is centrally concerned with the diversity of culture.社会人类学主要关于文化多样性。

5 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

6 nurture   

n.养育，照顾，教育；滋养，营养品；vt.养育，给与营养物，教养，扶持

参考例句：

• The tree grows well in his nurture.在他的培育下这棵树长得很好。
• The two sisters had received very different nurture.这俩个姊妹接受过极不同的教育。

7 specialty   

n.(speciality)特性，特质；专业，专长

参考例句：

• Shell carvings are a specialty of the town.贝雕是该城的特产。
• His specialty is English literature.他的专业是英国文学。