MUSEUM OF LONDON ARCHAEOLOGY
Wresting DNA from the 663-year-old teeth of victims of the Black Death,
researchers have reconstructed the genome of the bacterium that originated
in Asia and wiped out up to half of western Europe's population. It's the first
time that scientists have successfully pieced together the genome of an ancient
microbe from skeletal remains.
researchers have reconstructed the genome of the bacterium that originated
in Asia and wiped out up to half of western Europe's population. It's the first
time that scientists have successfully pieced together the genome of an ancient
microbe from skeletal remains.
Surprisingly, the researchers report in the journal Nature, the DNA of the
microbe — Yersinia pestis — has changed very little since the mid-14th century,
when it decimated the populations of London, Paris, Marseilles, Barcelona and
other cities. The researchers also believe that Y. pestis was a newly evolved
pathogen at the time, having arisen from a harmless dirt-dwelling bacterium
perhaps just 140 years before it wreaked havoc in Europe.
Modern forms of the plague-causing microbe, however, don't appear to be
that virulent, which has led some scientists to believe that Y. pestis wasn't the
bug responsible for the Black Death at all./.../
microbe — Yersinia pestis — has changed very little since the mid-14th century,
when it decimated the populations of London, Paris, Marseilles, Barcelona and
other cities. The researchers also believe that Y. pestis was a newly evolved
pathogen at the time, having arisen from a harmless dirt-dwelling bacterium
perhaps just 140 years before it wreaked havoc in Europe.
Modern forms of the plague-causing microbe, however, don't appear to be
that virulent, which has led some scientists to believe that Y. pestis wasn't the
bug responsible for the Black Death at all./.../
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