DNA analysis shows that Beethoven was not a Beethoven – 03/22/2023 – Science

From locks of hair preserved since the beginning of the 19th century, German researchers were able to “read” the DNA of the composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). The result is almost as shocking as the first notes of the musician’s famous Fifth Symphony: everything indicates that there was a betrayal in the Beethoven family, one or more generations before his birth.

This is because the Y chromosome (the genetic mark of masculinity, present in most men) in the DNA of locks of hair does not match that of men alive today who have the same last name and descend from Beethoven’s supposed ancestor. This means that, at some point, another man, without that last name, generated male children within the family, and it is from them that the musician descends.

Such surprising findings are described in an article in the specialized journal Current Biology. The team responsible for the study, led by Johannes Krause, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, also scoured the composer’s genome in search of clues about his health problems – throughout his life, Beethoven lost his hearing and had gastrointestinal and intestinal disorders. liver.

Digestive difficulties and deafness remain a relative mystery even with the complete genome, but Krause and his colleagues spotted the presence of a DNA variant that made Beethoven vulnerable to liver disease. On top of that, they detected the presence of genetic material from the hepatitis B virus in her body in the months before her death. This combination of factors may have hastened the end of the genius.

Krause told Sheet that the idea behind the project was formulated in 2014, when he was first contacted by Tristan Begg, at the time a master’s student who had worked for some time at the Beethoven Center in California, along with expert William Meredith.

“Will is an expert on Beethoven’s work, and Tristan became one as well during his doctorate,” says Krause. The German researcher considers himself a lover of classical music — his wife is a musician and he often goes to concerts. “I like Beethoven, but I prefer Dvorak [compositor tcheco] or Tchaikovsky [russo]. I think I’m more from the East [europeu]”, he jokes.

The detective work before the musician’s genome was “spelled out” also involved a number of curious surprises. As he was already famous in life, Beethoven gave locks of his hair to different admirers over time. The study team had access to eight of these mechs, which, in general, have different transmission histories — they were given to fans of the composer who didn’t know each other, at different times in Beethoven’s life, or shortly after his death.

One of the strands did not have enough DNA for analysis to be done. Another, according to genome sequencing, came from a woman. The rest were from men of European origin, but five belonged to the same person, while the other belonged to another individual.

As the five strands whose genome “beat” had damage to their DNA that was expected for a sample from the 19th century, and considering that, in general, they had independent and well-documented histories, the team concluded that the material was authentic. “It is extremely unlikely that the samples do not come from Beethoven. That would require an extremely complex forgery”, summarizes Krause. One of the locks was then chosen for a detailed analysis of the German musician’s DNA.

Based on genealogical records, the team looked for men alive today who were possible relatives of him. They even reached a group of descendants of Aert van Beethoven (1535-1609), who, according to the same genealogies, would also be the composer’s ancestor. It was then that the surprise came: although the Y chromosomes of these descendants of Aert are practically identical to each other, they do not correspond to the Y chromosome of the mecha genome.

The most likely, therefore, is that between Aert and Beethoven’s father some conception took place in which the biological father was not a member of the family. “We still haven’t found anyone with a Y chromosome identical to his, but maybe that will happen in the future”, says Krause.

As for the diseases that plagued the genius, the strongest clue is that of a variant of the PNPLA3 gene, a genetic risk factor considered high for the onset of liver cirrhosis. Beethoven was homozygous for this variant—that is, he carried two copies of this form of the gene, one from his father and one from his mother, further increasing his risk.

The deleterious effects of the DNA variant are only potentiated with high alcohol consumption. Apparently, this was what was happening, as some sources say that he drank about a liter of wine with lunch at the end of his life.