Great plague was called “Black Death” because of the victim’s skin is blackened due to bleeding under the skin (subdermal). Having previously is still doubted by some circles that the deaths caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, scientists from the University of Tubingen Germany and Canada’s McMaster University has been able to confirm that Yersinia pestis was behind the outbreak of the well-known in history as the “Great Mortality” or the Great Mortality.

The results are reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The international research team for the first time been able to decode the circular genome is important to explain the virulence or the degree of malignancy bacterium Yersinia pestis. This is called pPCP1 plasmid and consists of about 10,000 positions in the DNA of bacteria.

Samples taken from the framework of a cemetery for plague victims in London, England. The study used the way by taking molecules from tooth enamel and sequencing by using the latest technology.

With this advanced method, fragments of which is connected to the length genome sequence was identical to the bacterial pathogen causing the outbreak. It turns out that genetic information has barely changed in 600 years.

The researchers were also able to show that DNA from the cemetery for plague victims in London is of medieval origin. To do that, they inspect the damage to DNA that occurs only in old DNA. Plague pathogen Yersinia pestis also known as the cause of the plague in medieval times.

Yersinia pestis

Yersinia pestis is the bacterium that causes the disorder. It is a Gram-negative bacterium that can grow with or without oxygen (called anaerobic morbidly quality).

Family Yersinia pestis Yersinia pestis has previously been classified within the family Pasteurellaceae, but based on similarity with Escherichia coli (E. coli), Yersinia group then reclassified as a member of the family Enterobacteriaceae.

Although there are 11 names of species in the genus Yersinia, only three pathogens that are considered essential for humans: Yersinia pestis, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis and Yersinia enterocolitica.

Yersinia pseudotuberculosis is closest to the genetics of Yersinia pestis, but can be distinguished from Yersinia pestis by the symptoms it causes and results of laboratory tests. Both of these bacteria often infect humans, in contrast to Yersinia enterocolitica, which accounts for 1 to 3 percent of cases of diarrhea caused by bacteria.

Yersinia pestis Yersinia pestis in animals most commonly found in mice, but occasionally in other animals, like mice (Mice)
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