Spyrou, M.A. orcid.org/0000-0002-3615-3936, Keller, M. orcid.org/0000-0001-9668-6817, Tukhbatova, R.I. et al. (29 more authors) (2019) Phylogeography of the second plague pandemic revealed through analysis of historical Yersinia pestis genomes. Nature Communications, 10. 4470. ISSN: 2041-1723
Abstract
The second plague pandemic, caused by Yersinia pestis, devastated Europe and the nearby regions between the 14th and 18th centuries AD. Here we analyse human remains from ten European archaeological sites spanning this period and reconstruct 34 ancient Y. pestis genomes. Our data support an initial entry of the bacterium through eastern Europe, the absence of genetic diversity during the Black Death, and low within-outbreak diversity thereafter. Analysis of post-Black Death genomes shows the diversification of a Y. pestis lineage into multiple genetically distinct clades that may have given rise to more than one disease reservoir in, or close to, Europe. In addition, we show the loss of a genomic region that includes virulence-related genes in strains associated with late stages of the pandemic. The deletion was also identified in genomes connected with the first plague pandemic (541–750 AD), suggesting a comparable evolutionary trajectory of Y. pestis during both events.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 The Authors. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Archaeology; DNA, Bacterial; Europe, Eastern; Fossils; Genome, Bacterial; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; Humans; Pandemics; Phylogeny; Phylogeography; Plague; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; Time Factors; Virulence; Yersinia pestis |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (Sheffield) > Department of Archaeology (Sheffield) The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (Sheffield) > Department of History (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 29 Aug 2025 14:01 |
Last Modified: | 29 Aug 2025 14:09 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12154-0 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s41467-019-12154-0 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:230785 |