What I'm reading: Beethoven's DNA.

(The composer, not the dog).

Old and terrible joke: What did Beethoven do after he died? He decomposed.

Anywho, for almost two centuries the cause of Beethoven’s death has been a mystery. From contemporaneous descriptions, it sounds like he had liver failure, though whether that was the primary cause (think, Hepatitis), or a secondary effect (think, metastatic cancer), isn’t known.

Around a decade ago, scholars realized that DNA sequencing technology had progressed enough that genetic analyses could be done on hair samples believed to have come from the great maestro. In fact, scientists have now sequenced Beethoven’s entire genome. (If the technology ever advances enough to turn Jurassic Park into a reality, I really hope scientists bring a cloned Beethoven to life, rather than, say, a Tyrannosaurus. But, hey, that’s just me.)

The research on Beethoven’s DNA is described in a fun piece published in the New York Times this past week.

Coming into this, my major skepticism centered on the question of how anyone could be certain that the DNA sequences taken from hair samples even belonged to Beethoven. Well, it turns out that as Beethoven was actively dying, locks of his hair were cut and handed out to visiting admirers and well-wishers as (creepy) souvenirs. Nearly 200 years later, seven of these samples were tracked down. Many of them had “impeccable” documented chains of custody. But even that wouldn’t persuade me, to be honest. Here’s what did convince me, though: five of the samples, acquired from far-flung places which had not travelled together over the centuries, were perfect genetic matches. These five samples all came from the same man. (One other sample was unable to be tested and the last was deemed inauthentic by virtue of its failure to match with the others). Combined with the documentation of the provenance of the samples, the genetic matching sealed the deal for me. Cool, right?

From there, scientists looked for evidence of genetic diseases that could have resulted in liver failure in the great composer. Not much came up. No sign of Crohn’s, Ulcerative Colitis, or other diseases which have genetic linkages of some kind. (One quibble with the article: it said they also ruled out irritable bowel syndrome. That’s simply wrong. You can’t use genetics to rule that condition out).

But one reasonable possibility did come up. Of all of the suggested causes of death, Hepatitis B seems the most likely hypothesis to me. After infection, Hepatitis B DNA gets incorporated into our own DNA. Scientists found traces of the virus in the samples isolated from Beethoven’s hair. The theory is that Beethoven acquired the infection at birth, was a chronic carrier, and that it eventually led to liver failure in his 50s. Today, Hepatitis B is a vaccine preventable disease.

Alright, one more bad Beethoven joke: Why couldn't they find Beethoven's teacher? Because he was Haydn.