Distinct Clones of Yersinia pestis Caused the Black Death

PLoS Pathogens

Elisabeth Carniel¹  Sacha Kacki²  Michael Schultz³  Marco Vermunt⁴  Mark Achtman⁵  Barbara Bramanti⁶  Darlene A. Weston⁷  Stephanie Haensch⁸  Derek Hurst⁹  Raffaella Bianucci^1,10  Michel Signoli^1,11  Minoarisoa Rajerison^1,11 

[1] Barge's Anthropologica, Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands;Center for Plague, Institute Pasteur de Madagascar, World Health Organization Collaborating, Antananarivo, Madagascar;Centre d'Études Préhistoire, Antiquité, Moyen-âge, UMR 6130 CNRS–250 University of Nice, Valbonne, France;Department of Anatomy and Embryology Medical Faculty, Georg-August University, Göttingen, Germany;Department of Monuments and Archaeology, Municipality of Bergen op Zoom, Bergen op Zoom, The Netherlands;Division of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom;Inrap, Villeneuve-d'Ascq Archaeological Center, Villeneuve-d'Ascq, France;Institute for Anthropology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany;Laboratoire d'Anthropologie des Populations du Passé, Université Bordeaux 1, Talence, France;Laboratory of Criminalistic Sciences Department of Anatomy, Pharmacology and Legal Medicine, University of Turin, Turin, Italy;Unité d'Anthropologie Bioculturelle, Faculté de Medecine, University of Mediterranean-CNRS-EFS, Marseille, France

关键词: Yersinia pestis;    Plagues;    Black death;    Teeth;    Europe;    Sequence alignment;    Archaeology;    Polymerase chain reaction;   

DOI  :  10.1371/journal.ppat.1001134

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Public Library of Science

【 摘 要 】

From AD 1347 to AD 1353, the Black Death killed tens of millions of people in Europe, leaving misery and devastation in its wake, with successive epidemics ravaging the continent until the 18th century. The etiology of this disease has remained highly controversial, ranging from claims based on genetics and the historical descriptions of symptoms that it was caused by Yersinia pestis to conclusions that it must have been caused by other pathogens. It has also been disputed whether plague had the same etiology in northern and southern Europe. Here we identified DNA and protein signatures specific for Y. pestis in human skeletons from mass graves in northern, central and southern Europe that were associated archaeologically with the Black Death and subsequent resurgences. We confirm that Y. pestis caused the Black Death and later epidemics on the entire European continent over the course of four centuries. Furthermore, on the basis of 17 single nucleotide polymorphisms plus the absence of a deletion in glpD gene, our aDNA results identified two previously unknown but related clades of Y. pestis associated with distinct medieval mass graves. These findings suggest that plague was imported to Europe on two or more occasions, each following a distinct route. These two clades are ancestral to modern isolates of Y. pestis biovars Orientalis and Medievalis. Our results clarify the etiology of the Black Death and provide a paradigm for a detailed historical reconstruction of the infection routes followed by this disease.

【 授权许可】

CC BY