Researchers Reconstruct Genome of the Black Death; Bacteria Found to Be Ancestor of All Modern Plagues
ScienceDaily (Oct. 12, 2011) — An international team -- led by researchers at McMaster University and the University of Tubingen in Germany -- has sequenced the entire genome of the Black Death, one of the most devastating epidemics in human history.
A skull from the East Smithfield plague pits in London, located under what is now the Royal Mint. (Credit: Photo by Museum of London)
This marks the first time scientists have been able to draft a reconstructed genome of any ancient pathogen, which will allow researchers to track changes in the pathogen's evolution and virulence over time. This work -- currently published online in the journal Nature-- could lead to a better understanding of modern infectious diseases.
Geneticists Hendrik Poinar and Kirsten Bos of McMaster University and Johannes Krause and Verena Schuenemann of the University of Tubingen collaborated with Brian Golding and David Earn of McMaster University, Hernán A. Burbano and Matthias Meyer of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and Sharon DeWitte of the University of South Carolina, among others.
In a separate study published recently, the team described a novel methodological approach to pull out tiny degraded DNA fragments of the causative agent of the Black Death, and showed that a specific variant of the Yersinia pestis bacterium, was responsible for the plague that killed 50 million Europeans between 1347 and 1351.
After this success, the next major step was to attempt to "capture" and sequence the entire genome, explains Poinar, associate professor and director of the McMaster Ancient DNA Centre and an investigator with the Michael G. DeGroote Institute of Infectious Disease Research, also at McMaster University.
"The genomic data show that this bacterial strain, or variant, is the ancestor of all modern plagues we have today worldwide. Every outbreak across the globe today stems from a descendant of the medieval plague," he says. "With a better understanding of the evolution of this deadly pathogen, we are entering a new era of research into infectious disease."
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A draft genome of Yersinia pestis from victims of the Black Death
Kirsten I. Bos et al
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Nature (2011) doi:10.1038/nature10549
Received 25 July 2011 Accepted 09 September 2011 Published online 12 October 2011
Technological advances in DNA recovery and sequencing have drastically expanded the scope of genetic analyses of ancient specimens to the extent that full genomic investigations are now feasible and are quickly becoming standard1. This trend has important implications for infectious disease research because genomic data from ancient microbes may help to elucidate mechanisms of pathogen evolution and adaptation for emerging and re-emerging infections. Here we report a reconstructed ancient genome of Yersinia pestis at 30-fold average coverage from Black Death victims securely dated to episodes of pestilence-associated mortality in London, England, 1348–1350. Genetic architecture and phylogenetic analysis indicate that the ancient organism is ancestral to most extant strains and sits very close to the ancestral node of allY. pestis commonly associated with human infection. Temporal estimates suggest that the Black Death of 1347–1351 was the main historical event responsible for the introduction and widespread dissemination of the ancestor to all currently circulating Y. pestis strains pathogenic to humans, and further indicates that contemporary Y. pestis epidemics have their origins in the medieval era. Comparisons against modern genomes reveal no unique derived positions in the medieval organism, indicating that the perceived increased virulence of the disease during the Black Death may not have been due to bacterial phenotype. These findings support the notion that factors other than microbial genetics, such as environment, vector dynamics and host susceptibility, should be at the forefront of epidemiological discussions regarding emerging Y. pestis infections.
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