China As Origins of Historical Plagues

choi

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Nicholas Wade, Black Death's Origins Traced to China; Three great waves of disease share a family tree of bacterium. New York Times, Nov. 1, 2010.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/01/health/01plague.html?scp=1&sq=black%20death&st=cse

My comment:
(1) Yersinia pestis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yersinia_pestis
(However, [compared with Kitasato, see below] it was Yersin who actually linked plague with Yersinia pestis. Originally named Pasteurella pestis, the organism was renamed in 1967)

(a) Alexandre Yersin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Yersin
(1863-1943; Along with Kitasato Shibasaburō, he is remembered as the co-discoverer of the bacillus responsible for the bubonic plague or pest; Yersin was born in 1863 in Aubonne, Canton of Vaud, Switzerland, to a family originally from France)

(b) KITASATO Shibasaburō
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitasato_Shibasabur%C5%8D
(Baron 男爵; 北里 柴三郎; 1853-1931; studied under Dr. Robert Koch in University of Berlin from 1885 to 1891; He traveled to Hong Kong in 1894 at the request of the Japanese government during an outbreak of the bubonic plague, and successfully identified the bacterium causing the disease; Four years later, Kitasato and his student SHIGA Kiyoshi 志賀 潔 were able to isolate and describe the organism that caused dysentery [Shigella dysenteriae 志賀氏桿菌])

He received 医学士 from 東京医学校（現・東京大学医学部）in 1883（明治16年).  ja.wikipedia.org.

(2) carry off (vt): "to cause the death of <the plague carried off thousands>"
www.m-w.com

(3) Haensch S, Distinct Clones of Yersinia pestis Caused the Black Death. PLoS Pathogens, October 2010.
http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.1001134

(a) Barbara Bramanti is the last author.
(b) PLOS stands for Public Library of Science.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Library_of_Science
(launched in 2003; seven journals at present; To fund the journal, PLoS charges a publication fee to be paid by the author or the author's employer or funder; PLoS still relies heavily on donations from foundations to cover the majority of its operating costs)

Online only (no hard copy, that is); free to readers.
(c) Check out
(i) Figure 1. Geographical position of the five archaeological sites investigated.

This figure includes Hereford, England and Dutch town of Bergen op Zoom, both mentioned in the NYT report.
(ii) Figure 2. Schematic phylogenetic tree of Y. pestis derived from Achtman et al. with the position of the ancient strains.
(iii) Figure 3. Analysis of aDNA from human remains with 18 markers (glpD, napA and 16 SNPs) that define the three main branches of the Y. pestis evolutionary tree.

A nucleotide changed in each mutation. For example, in the upper left corner, AAA changed to AAG (A-->G). Three nucleotides for a codon, dictating an amino acid. (In thgis case, no change in amino acid and thus function, as both AAA and AAG represents the amino acid lysine.)

(4) Hereford
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hereford
(in Herefordshire; The name "Hereford" is said to come from the Anglo Saxon "here", an army or formation of soldiers, and the "ford", a place for crossing a river. If this is the origin it suggests that Hereford was a place where a body of armed men forded or crossed the [River] Wye.)

There is Hereford Street in City of Boston.

(5) Justinian I
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justinian_I
(483-565)
(6) University College Cork
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_College_Cork
(founded in 1845 and located in Cork; a constituent university of the National University of Ireland)

(7) Morella G et al, Yersinia pestis genome sequencing identifies patterns of global phylogenetic diversity. Nature Genetics, _: _ (published online Oct. 31, 2010).
http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/ng.705.html

(a) Mark Achtman is the last author of the paper.
(b) The text states, "Europe was devastated by Justinian's plague (in the years 541–767) and the Black Death (1346 through the eighteenth century)5, 6, the latter of which also ravaged China7."

Reference 7: Wu, L.T. Chapter I: historical aspects. in Plague: A Manual for Medical and Public Health Workers 1–55 (Weishengshu, National Quarantine Service, Shanghai, China, 1936).

(c) The authors must have had access to bacteria isolated from China so as to compared DNA sequences. And they did (the following quote comes from the text, which is not available to non-subscribers).

"Methods: Bacterial isolates.
We investigated bacteria from various geographical sources, including 92 isolates from global origins and 98 isolates from China that represent the genetic diversity revealed by * * *



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※ 修改:．choi 于 Nov  1 18:48:19 修改本文．[FROM: 129.10.0.0]