Time: Thursday 24 November at 15-16
Venue: on Zoom
Registration: Please register here to join the webinar
The origin of the Black Death and the genetic history of the Plague
Lecturer: Johannes Krause, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
High-throughput DNA sequencing has revolutionized the field of archaeogenetics in the past decade, providing a better understanding of human genetic history, past population dynamics and host pathogen interactions through time. Targeted DNA capture approaches have allowed reconstructing complete ancient bacterial genomes providing direct insights into the evolution and origin of some of the most infamous bacterial pathogens known to humans such as Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of plague.
Ancient Y. pestis genomes spanning over 5 000 years of human history from the Stone Age to modern times provide novel insights into the evolution and direct evidence for the timing and emergence of major virulence factors essential for the transmission of Y. pestis by fleas. The oldest reconstructed genomes of Y. pestis fully capable of causing the bubonic form from the Eastern European Bronze Age provides evidence for prehistoric epidemics of this form of the disease which have emerged more than 1 000 years earlier than previously suggested. Temporal studies of pathogens might thus throw new light on the origin of human diseases and potentially allow predicting and preventing further transmissions and disseminations in the future.