MSGID: 1:317/3 6476cd8a   
   PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
    4,000-year-old plague DNA found -- the oldest cases to date in Britain   
      
      
     Date:   
         May 30, 2023   
     Source:   
         The Francis Crick Institute   
     Summary:   
         Researchers have identified three 4,000-year-old British cases   
         of Yersinia pestis, the bacteria causing the plague -- the oldest   
         evidence of the plague in Britain to date.   
      
      
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   FULL STORY   
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   Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute have identified three   
   4,000-year-old British cases of Yersinia pestis, the bacteria causing   
   the plague -- the oldest evidence of the plague in Britain to date,   
   reported in a paper published today in Nature Communications.   
      
   Working with the University of Oxford, the Levens Local History Group and   
   the Wells and Mendip Museum, the team identified two cases of Yersinia   
   pestis in human remains found in a mass burial in Charterhouse Warren   
   in Somerset and one in a ring cairn monument in Levens in Cumbria.   
      
   They took small skeletal samples from 34 individuals across the two sites,   
   screening for the presence of Yersinia pestisin teeth. This technique is   
   performed in a specialist clean room facility where they drill into the   
   tooth and extract dental pulp, which can trap DNA remnants of infectious   
   diseases.   
      
   They then analysed the DNA and identified three cases of Yersinia pestis   
   in two children estimated to be aged between 10-12 years old when they   
   died, and one woman aged between 35-45. Radiocarbon dating was used to   
   show it's likely the three people lived at roughly the same time.   
      
   The plague has previously been identified in several individuals from   
   Eurasia between 5,000 and 2,500 years before present (BP), a period   
   spanning the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age (termed LNBA), but hadn't been   
   seen before in Britain at this point in time. The wide geographic spread   
   suggests that this strain of the plague may have been easily transmitted.   
      
   This strain of the plague -- the LNBA lineage -- was likely brought   
   into Central and Western Europe around 4,800 BP by humans expanding into   
   Eurasia, and now this research suggests that it extended to Britain.   
      
   Using genome sequencing, the researchers showed that this strain of the   
   Yersinia pestis looks very similar to the strain identified in Eurasia   
   at the same time.   
      
   The individuals identified all lacked the yapCand ymtgenes, which are   
   seen in later strains of plague, the latter of which is known to play   
   an important role in plague transmission via fleas. This information has   
   previously suggested that this strain of the plague was not transmitted   
   via fleas, unlike later plague strains such as the one that caused the   
   Black Death.   
      
   Because pathogenic DNA -- DNA from bacteria, protozoa, or viruses   
   which cause disease -- degrades very quickly in samples which might be   
   incomplete or eroded, it's also possible that other individuals at these   
   burial sites may have been infected with the same strain of plague.   
      
   The Charterhouse Warren site is rare as it doesn't match other funeral   
   sites from the time period -- the individuals buried there appear to have   
   died from trauma. The researchers speculate that the mass burial wasn't   
   due to an outbreak of plague but individuals may have been infected at   
   the time they died.   
      
   Pooja Swali, first author and PhD student at the Crick, said, "The ability   
   to detect ancient pathogens from degraded samples, from thousands of   
   years ago, is incredible. These genomes can inform us of the spread   
   and evolutionary changes of pathogens in the past, and hopefully help   
   us understand which genes may be important in the spread of infectious   
   diseases. We see that this Yersinia pestis lineage, including genomes   
   from this study, loses genes over time, a pattern that has emerged   
   with later epidemics caused by the same pathogen."  Pontus Skoglund,   
   group leader of the Ancient Genomics Laboratory at the Crick, said,   
   "This research is a new piece of the puzzle in our understanding of the   
   ancient genomic record of pathogens and humans, and how we co-evolved.   
      
   "We understand the huge impact of many historical plague outbreaks, such   
   as the Black Death, on human societies and health, but ancient DNA can   
   document infectious disease much further into the past. Future research   
   will do more to understand how our genomes responded to such diseases in   
   the past, and the evolutionary arms race with the pathogens themselves,   
   which can help us to understand the impact of diseases in the present   
   or in the future."   
       * RELATED_TOPICS   
             o Health_&_Medicine   
                   # Infectious_Diseases # Foodborne_Illness # Genes   
             o Plants_&_Animals   
                   # Microbes_and_More # Veterinary_Medicine #   
                   Evolutionary_Biology   
             o Fossils_&_Ruins   
                   # Fossils # Ancient_Civilizations # Evolution   
       * RELATED_TERMS   
             o Bubonic_plague o Head_injury o Flea o Legionnaires'_disease   
             o Pest_(animal) o Microorganism o Bacteria o Yellow_fever   
      
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   Story Source: Materials provided by The_Francis_Crick_Institute. Note:   
   Content may be edited for style and length.   
      
      
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   Related Multimedia:   
       * Map_and_images_of_bronze_age_pottery   
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   Journal Reference:   
      1. Pooja Swali, Rick Schulting, Alexandre Gilardet, Monica Kelly,   
      Kyriaki   
         Anastasiadou, Isabelle Glocke, Jesse McCabe, Mia Williams, Tony   
         Audsley, Louise Loe, Teresa Ferna'ndez-Crespo, Javier Ordon~o,   
         David Walker, Tom Clare, Geoff Cook, Ian Hodkinson, Mark Simpson,   
         Stephen Read, Tom Davy, Marina Silva, Mateja Hajdinjak, Anders   
         Bergstro"m, Thomas Booth, Pontus Skoglund. Yersinia pestis genomes   
         reveal plague in Britain 4000 years ago. Nature Communications,   
         2023; 14 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38393-w   
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   Link to news story:   
   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/05/230530125355.htm   
      
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