A High-Coverage Yersinia pestis Genome from a Sixth-Century Justinianic Plague Victim.

ABSTRACT: The Justinianic Plague, which started in the sixth century and lasted to the mid eighth century, is thought to be the first of three historically documented plague pandemics causing massive casualties. Historical accounts and molecular data suggest the bacterium Yersinia pestis as its etiological agent. Here we present a new high-coverage (17.9-fold) Y. pestis genome obtained from a sixth-century skeleton recovered from a southern German burial site close to Munich. The reconstructed genome enabled the detection of 30 unique substitutions as well as structural differences that have not been previously described. We report indels affecting a lacl family transcription regulator gene as well as nonsynonymous substitutions in the nrdE, fadJ, and pcp genes, that have been suggested as plague vi

SUBMITTER: Feldman M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5062324 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature