Black Death

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Nicholas Wade, Scientists Solve Puzzle of Black Death DNA; The genome of an ancient pathogen has been reconstructed. New York Times, Oct 13, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/13/science/13plague.html?scp=1&sq=black%20death&st=cse

Note: The report is based on
Bos KI et al, A draft genome of Yersinia pestis from victims of the Black Death. Nature, published online Oct 12, 2011
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature10549.html
("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. * * * 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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