second pandemic

Digging Up More Clues in the History of the Black Death

Posted on by Sara Klink

Bubonic plague victims in a mass grave in 18th century France. By S. Tzortzis [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Bubonic plague victims in a mass grave in 18th century France. By S. Tzortzis [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
My last blog post on the Black Death highlighted research that suggested that the reintroduction of Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of the pandemic, originated in Europe during the 14–18th centuries rather than from Asia, the hypothesized origin. In my post, I wrote about my curiosity regarding what an Asian skeleton positive for Y. pestis from that same time period would reveal about the strain or strains that were circulating. Well, a team of researchers has been exploring the issue of strain circulation and an Asian connection, and recently published what they gleaned from additional historic Y. pestis samples in Cell Host & Microbe.

Teeth from 178 individuals in three different locations (two European, one Asian) were screened for Y. pestis infection using the plasminogen activator (pla) gene. Continue reading “Digging Up More Clues in the History of the Black Death”

The Black Death: World Traveler or Persistent Homebody?

Posted on by Sara Klink

Spread of the Black Death. By Timemaps (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons.
In the last six years, researchers have untangled the origins of devastating human plagues, sequenced the genome of a Yersinia pestis strain responsible for the Black Death and explored how long this bacterium has been with humans. However, the information arising from this research begs more questions. How many variations of Y. pestis occurred during the 14–17th centuries, the second pandemic that began with the Black Death? Did these differences reflect the location in which the Y. pestis-positive skeletons were found? What were the geographic source or sources of these plagues? A recent PLOS ONE article examined Y. pestis found in German remains separated by 500km and 300 years to answer to some of these questions. Continue reading “The Black Death: World Traveler or Persistent Homebody?”