Beethoven's deafness - and genetics

[Dave2002]

This article makes some interesting observations about the possible origins of Beethoven's deafness:

https://www.sciencealert.com/dna-from-beethovens-hair-reveals-surprise-nearly-200-years-later

The very much more detailed article on which that is based is here:

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(23)00181-1

However both articles contain a curious statement:

Further investigation comparing the Y chromosome in the hair samples with those of modern relatives descending from Beethoven's paternal line point to a mismatch.

This suggests extramarital sexual activity in the generations leading up to the composer's birth.

I looked for a more detailed explanation, but it may have passed me by.

I asked myself - "What does extra marital sex have to do with genetics, procreation and progeny?"

Women will give birth to children as a result of sex independently of whether they were married or not - there is nothing in biology that I know of which distinguishes the cases. [ though curiously in some species there may be factors ... related to pair bonding - or not ..]

Maybe the authors were extrapolating and putting in other assumptions, such as whether or not there were conjugations with people infected with other diseases - either male/female, so syphillis etc., or male/male - so HIV like diseases and interactions.

Otherwise this detail seems unexplained, with possible mechanisms also left unclear.

[Roger Webb]

I noticed and read the top article which came up on my google search page yesterday, but thanks for the in-depth one Dave.

I've just taken down from the Beethoven shelf Russell Martin's 2000 'Beethoven's Hair' which I haven't read for more than 20 years, and can't really remember too clearly. It claims 'An extraordinary Historical Odyssey and a Scientific Mystery Solved'.

[Pulcinella]

Does it not simply mean that Beethoven's 'father' might not have been who he thought he was?

[Roger Webb]

Does it not simply mean that Beethoven's 'father' might not have been who he thought he was?

Well I'm sure Beethoven's father knew who he was....when he wasn't too drunk to remember! But perhaps Beethoven's 'father' wasn't who we thought he was.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Does it not simply mean that Beethoven's 'father' might not have been who he thought he was?

I think it means that within the paternal chain there were extra marital events not necessarily Beethovens father.
He clearly liked a glass did he not ?

[richardfinegold]

When I read it I was confused. I don’t know how the suggestion that some male DNA from outside the acknowledged relatives of the family had anything to do with his deafness.
Beethoven clearly didn’t have congenital syphillis, so who cares if some other men who contributed DNA to family gene pool did?
There were many reasons that deafness could occur as a relatively young adult that were more common then. The most common would be otitis media, or ear infections, in children that damaged the otic nerves , which then would progressively lose function through the years. Children were more prone then to OM due to lack of vaccination and antibiotics.
Beethoven’s Hair essentially alleges that Beethoven died of Plumbism-Lead Poisoning-from wine decanters made with stained glass. I think Plumbism can cause deafness (I never saw a case of Plumbism in my 40 year career) but I think he probably would have had other Central Nervous System features to go with the deafness-such as extreme ataxia -that AFAIK he did not have. Plumbism may have caused the Liver Damage that killed him, but it’s more likely that if he was drinking enough decanted wine to cause lead deposits in his hair, then it was probably the prosaic effects of the alcohol on his liver and not the more exotic lead poisoning .
Biographers frequently mention that his father beat him around the ears as a young child. That probably didn’t help.
Finally there is the occupational exposure of loud sounds. He wasn’t exposed to the kind of volume of sound of music that say Pete Townsend of the Who was exposed to, but he spent his life around music and musicians, and if he had pre existing problems related to childhood infections the noise that he was exposed to could have hastened his deafening.