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New ancient Eastern European Yersinia pestis genomes illuminate the dispersal of plague in Europe.


ABSTRACT: Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of plague, has been prevalent among humans for at least 5000 years, being accountable for several devastating epidemics in history, including the Black Death. Analyses of the genetic diversity of ancient strains of Y. pestis have shed light on the mechanisms of evolution and the spread of plague in Europe. However, many questions regarding the origins of the pathogen and its long persistence in Europe are still unresolved, especially during the late medieval time period. To address this, we present four newly assembled Y. pestis genomes from Eastern Europe (Poland and Southern Russia), dating from the fifteenth to eighteenth century AD. The analysis of polymorphisms in these genomes and their phylogenetic relationships with other ancient and modern Y. pestis strains may suggest several independent introductions of plague into Eastern Europe or its persistence in different reservoirs. Furthermore, with the reconstruction of a partial Y. pestis genome from rat skeletal remains found in a Polish ossuary, we were able to identify a potential animal reservoir in late medieval Europe. Overall, our results add new information concerning Y. pestis transmission and its evolutionary history in Eastern Europe. This article is part of the theme issue 'Insights into health and disease from ancient biomolecules'.

SUBMITTER: Morozova I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7702796 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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New ancient Eastern European <i>Yersinia pestis</i> genomes illuminate the dispersal of plague in Europe.

Morozova Irina I   Kasianov Artem A   Bruskin Sergey S   Neukamm Judith J   Molak Martyna M   Batieva Elena E   Pudło Aleksandra A   Rühli Frank J FJ   Schuenemann Verena J VJ  

Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences 20201005 1812


<i>Yersinia pestis</i>, the causative agent of plague, has been prevalent among humans for at least 5000 years, being accountable for several devastating epidemics in history, including the Black Death. Analyses of the genetic diversity of ancient strains of <i>Y. pestis</i> have shed light on the mechanisms of evolution and the spread of plague in Europe. However, many questions regarding the origins of the pathogen and its long persistence in Europe are still unresolved, especially during the  ...[more]

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