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RESEARCH PRODUCT
Yersinia pestis DNA from Skeletal Remains from the 6th Century AD Reveals Insights into Justinianic Plague
Stephanie HänschStephanie HänschMichaela HarbeckAstrid ThomasDawn N. BirdsellPaul KeimDavid M. WagnerLisa SeifertJulia M. RiehmKaty L. PariseLothar ZöllerBarbara BramantiBarbara BramantiIngrid WiechmannHolger C. ScholzGisela Grupesubject
MaleHistoryYersinia pestis590Social and Behavioral SciencesPandemicBiology (General)16th CenturyPhylogenyHistory 15th CenturybiologyBacterialHistory 19th Century20th CenturyBiological AnthropologyHistory 16th Century17th CenturyFemaleBase Sequence; Bone and Bones; DNA Bacterial; Female; Genotype; History 15th Century; History 16th Century; History 17th Century; History 19th Century; History 20th Century; History Medieval; Humans; Male; Molecular Sequence Data; Pandemics; Yersinia pestis; Phylogeny; PlagueMedievalResearch ArticleDNA BacterialGenotypeQH301-705.5ImmunologyMolecular Sequence DataPlague (disease)MicrobiologyBone and BonesNOHistory 17th CenturyVirologyGeneticsHumansBase sequenceMolecular BiologyPandemicsBiologyPlague bacillus19th CenturyPlagueBase SequenceDNARC581-607History 20th Centurybiology.organism_classificationVirologyHistory Medieval15th CenturyAncient DNAYersinia pestisAnthropologyYersinia pestis DNAParasitologyImmunologic diseases. Allergydescription
Yersinia pestis, the etiologic agent of the disease plague, has been implicated in three historical pandemics. These include the third pandemic of the 19th and 20th centuries, during which plague was spread around the world, and the second pandemic of the 14th–17th centuries, which included the infamous epidemic known as the Black Death. Previous studies have confirmed that Y. pestis caused these two more recent pandemics. However, a highly spirited debate still continues as to whether Y. pestis caused the so-called Justinianic Plague of the 6th–8th centuries AD. By analyzing ancient DNA in two independent ancient DNA laboratories, we confirmed unambiguously the presence of Y. pestis DNA in human skeletal remains from an Early Medieval cemetery. In addition, we narrowed the phylogenetic position of the responsible strain down to major branch 0 on the Y. pestis phylogeny, specifically between nodes N03 and N05. Our findings confirm that Y. pestis was responsible for the Justinianic Plague, which should end the controversy regarding the etiology of this pandemic. The first genotype of a Y. pestis strain that caused the Late Antique plague provides important information about the history of the plague bacillus and suggests that the first pandemic also originated in Asia, similar to the other two plague pandemics.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-01-01 |