Genome analysis of medieval Yersinia pestis suggests an ancient European source population for the majority of modern plague strains

Summary

Yersinia pestis is among the most notorious pathogens and is thought to be responsible for at least three major Eurasian plague pandemics since the Late Antique. Much has been speculated about the origin of the disease, and its potential migration routes to various parts of the world. Historical documents point toward an African origin for the first pandemic during the 6th century AD and an Asian source for the 14th century Black Death. Modern molecular data, however, suggest an East Asian origin for all strains based on the high genetic diversity observed in China. Here we make use of ancient Y. pestis genomes isolated from skeletons that span more than 1000 years of European history to reconstruct the relationship between historical and modern bacterial strains. We find that the two historical pandemic periods gave rise to independent Y. pestis lineages that traveled through Europe and later disappeared. The pervasive and worldwide third pandemic, however, derives from a lineage that likely originated during the Black Death, and spread eastwards after leaving Europe to become established in China. Our results thus illustrate how ancient genomes can be used to make inferences about the spread of historically important pathogens.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Biological Exchange in the Anthropocene: Archaeological and Genetic Perspectives

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