Genotyping, Orientalis-like Yersinia pestis, and Plague Pandemics
Three pandemics have been attributed to plague in the last 1,500 years. Yersinia pestis caused the third, and its DNA was found in human remains from the second. The Antiqua biovar of Y. pestis may have caused the first pandemic; the other two biovars, Medievalis and Orientalis, may have caused the...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
2004-09-01
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| Series: | Emerging Infectious Diseases |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/10/9/03-0933_article |
| _version_ | 1819027918646411264 |
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| author | Michel Drancourt Véronique Roux La Vu Dang Lam Tran-Hung Dominique Castex Viviane Chenal-Francisque Hiroyuki Ogata Pierre-Edouard Fournier Eric Crubézy Didier Raoult |
| author_facet | Michel Drancourt Véronique Roux La Vu Dang Lam Tran-Hung Dominique Castex Viviane Chenal-Francisque Hiroyuki Ogata Pierre-Edouard Fournier Eric Crubézy Didier Raoult |
| author_sort | Michel Drancourt |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Three pandemics have been attributed to plague in the last 1,500 years. Yersinia pestis caused the third, and its DNA was found in human remains from the second. The Antiqua biovar of Y. pestis may have caused the first pandemic; the other two biovars, Medievalis and Orientalis, may have caused the second and third pandemics, respectively. To test this hypothesis, we designed an original genotyping system based on intergenic spacer sequencing called multiple spacer typing (MST). We found that MST differentiated every biovar in a collection of 36 Y. pestis isolates representative of the three biovars. When MST was applied to dental pulp collected from remains of eight persons who likely died in the first and second pandemics, this system identified original sequences that matched those of Y. pestis Orientalis. These data indicate that Y. pestis caused cases of Justinian plague. The two historical plague pandemics were likely caused by Orientalis-like strains. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T05:50:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ef64bc176d554a82afbfcc24545f98ab |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1080-6040 1080-6059 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T05:50:06Z |
| publishDate | 2004-09-01 |
| publisher | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Emerging Infectious Diseases |
| spelling | doaj.art-ef64bc176d554a82afbfcc24545f98ab2022-12-21T19:14:00ZengCenters for Disease Control and PreventionEmerging Infectious Diseases1080-60401080-60592004-09-011091585159210.3201/eid1009.030933Genotyping, Orientalis-like Yersinia pestis, and Plague PandemicsMichel DrancourtVéronique RouxLa Vu DangLam Tran-HungDominique CastexViviane Chenal-FrancisqueHiroyuki OgataPierre-Edouard FournierEric CrubézyDidier RaoultThree pandemics have been attributed to plague in the last 1,500 years. Yersinia pestis caused the third, and its DNA was found in human remains from the second. The Antiqua biovar of Y. pestis may have caused the first pandemic; the other two biovars, Medievalis and Orientalis, may have caused the second and third pandemics, respectively. To test this hypothesis, we designed an original genotyping system based on intergenic spacer sequencing called multiple spacer typing (MST). We found that MST differentiated every biovar in a collection of 36 Y. pestis isolates representative of the three biovars. When MST was applied to dental pulp collected from remains of eight persons who likely died in the first and second pandemics, this system identified original sequences that matched those of Y. pestis Orientalis. These data indicate that Y. pestis caused cases of Justinian plague. The two historical plague pandemics were likely caused by Orientalis-like strains.https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/10/9/03-0933_articleYersinia pestisgenotypinghistorical plagueresearch |
| spellingShingle | Michel Drancourt Véronique Roux La Vu Dang Lam Tran-Hung Dominique Castex Viviane Chenal-Francisque Hiroyuki Ogata Pierre-Edouard Fournier Eric Crubézy Didier Raoult Genotyping, Orientalis-like Yersinia pestis, and Plague Pandemics Emerging Infectious Diseases Yersinia pestis genotyping historical plague research |
| title | Genotyping, Orientalis-like Yersinia pestis, and Plague Pandemics |
| title_full | Genotyping, Orientalis-like Yersinia pestis, and Plague Pandemics |
| title_fullStr | Genotyping, Orientalis-like Yersinia pestis, and Plague Pandemics |
| title_full_unstemmed | Genotyping, Orientalis-like Yersinia pestis, and Plague Pandemics |
| title_short | Genotyping, Orientalis-like Yersinia pestis, and Plague Pandemics |
| title_sort | genotyping orientalis like yersinia pestis and plague pandemics |
| topic | Yersinia pestis genotyping historical plague research |
| url | https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/10/9/03-0933_article |
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