Reconstructing ancient pathogens - discovery of Yersinia pestis in Eurasia 5,000 Years Ago

The bacterium Yersinia pestis is the etiological agent of plague and has caused human pandemics with millions of deaths in historic times. How and when it originated remains contentious. Here, we report the oldest direct evidence of Yersinia pestis identified by ancient DNA in human teeth from Asia and Europe dating from 2,800 to 5,000 years ago. By sequencing the genomes, we find that these ancient plague strains are basal to all known Yersinia pestis. We find the origins of the Yersinia pestis lineage to be at least two times older than previous estimates. We also identify a temporal sequence of genetic changes that lead to increased virulence and the emergence of the bubonic plague. Our results show that plague infection was endemic in the human populations of Eurasia at least 3,000 years before any historical recordings of pandemics. Our findings open the possibility of identifying other blood borne pathogens directly from human remains (See S. Rasmussen, M. E. Allentoft, K. Nielsen, L. Orlando, M. Sikora, K.-G. Sjögren …
E. Willerslev (2015). Early Divergent Strains of Yersinia pestis in Eurasia 5,000 Years Ago. Cell, 163:571–582).

Author - PhD Rasmussen, Simon, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark (Presenting author)
Co-author(s) - Allentoft, Morten, Center for Geogenetics, Copenhagen, Denmark
Co-author(s) - Nielsen, Kasper, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
Co-author(s) - Orlando, Ludovic, Center for Geogenetics, Copenhagen, Denmark
Co-author(s) - Sikora, Martin, Center for Geogenetics, Copenhagen, Denmark
Co-author(s) - Sjögren, Karl-Göran, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
Co-author(s) - Kristiansen, Kristian, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
Co-author(s) - Willerslev, Eske, Center for Geogenetics, Copenhagen, Denmark

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