Nature Communications (Jun 2018)

Analysis of 3800-year-old Yersinia pestis genomes suggests Bronze Age origin for bubonic plague

  • Maria A. Spyrou,
  • Rezeda I. Tukhbatova,
  • Chuan-Chao Wang,
  • Aida Andrades Valtueña,
  • Aditya K. Lankapalli,
  • Vitaly V. Kondrashin,
  • Victor A. Tsybin,
  • Aleksandr Khokhlov,
  • Denise Kühnert,
  • Alexander Herbig,
  • Kirsten I. Bos,
  • Johannes Krause

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04550-9
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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Yersinia pestis has caused infections (plague) in humans since the Early Bronze Age (5000 years ago). Here, Spyrou et al. reconstruct Y. pestis genomes from Late Bronze Age individuals, and find genomic evidence compatible with flea-mediated transmission causing bubonic plague.