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Researchers say they have found the oldest strain of bacteria responsible for the deadly bubonic plague that killed millions of people in Asia and Europe in the mid-1300s.
According to the study published in the journal Cell Reports, a bacteria called Yersinia pestis was discovered in what was left of a 500-year-old corpse, likely that of a hunter-gatherer.
The remains of the man officially called “RV 2039” were found in Latvia in the late 1800s. Examination of these remains revealed that the man was between 20 and 30 years old when he went missing and was part of the of the four specimens found in a land called Rinnukalns.
How was the bacteria found?
To test the remains of human teeth and bones for bacterial and viral pathogens, scientists at the University of Kiel in Germany used genome sequencing.
Soon after, they found concrete evidence of Yersinia pestis bacteria in the bloodstream of RV 2039. Believed to be the oldest known strain of bacteria to have ever been discovered, the strain constitutes a lineage of bacteria that has persisted there. about 7,000 years ago.
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In a statement, Ben Krause-Kyora, author of the study said that perhaps the most astonishing facet of this study is the fact that “the appearance of Y. Pestis” can be postponed for 2,000 years. we did not believe it before. Krause-Kyora also added that they could be “very close” to the origin of the bacteria.
Even though the strain is considered less infectious and deadly than the one that killed millions of people during the Black Death. According to the study, the ancient bacteria lacked a particular gene that allowed fleas to transmit plague to others, acting as vectors.
Scientists postulate that the man probably died from a bite from an infected animal that transmitted the bacterial infection to him. The disease is thought to progress slowly in RV 2039.
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