The Justinianic plague: origins and effects

Sarris, Peter

doi:10.1017/s0268416002004137

Cited by 161 publications

(28 citation statements)

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“…Previous assumptions of an African origin were mainly based on a single deeply diverging 0.PE strain ‘Angola’ (45) and the reports of the Byzantine historian Evagrius Scholasticus, who wrote in his Ecclesiastical History that the plague began in “Ethiopia”. However, there are legitimate doubts about the characterization of the ‘Angola’ genome as a genuine African strain (24, 46) and the account of Evagrius has been assessed critically with historical and philological methods (47, 48). For an Asian origin, the sea route via the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean is a plausible scenario since India was well connected by marine traffic with the early Byzantine Empire (39).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

AncientYersinia pestisgenomes from across Western Europe reveal early diversification during the First Pandemic (541–750)

Keller

Spyrou²,

Scheib

et al. 2018

Preprint

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The first historically documented pandemic caused byYersinia pestisstarted as the Justinianic Plague in 541 within the Roman Empire and continued as the so-called First Pandemic until 750. Although palaeogenomic studies have previously identified the causative agent asY. pestis, little is known about the bacterium’s spread, diversity and genetic history over the course of the pandemic.To elucidate the microevolution of the bacterium during this time period, we screened human remains from 20 sites in Austria, Britain, Germany, France and Spain forY. pestisDNA and reconstructed six new genomes. We present a novel methodological approach assessing SNPs in ancient bacterial genomes, facilitating qualitative analyses of low coverage genomes from a metagenomic background. Phylogenetic analysis reveals the existence of previously undocumentedY. pestisdiversity during the 6th–7thcenturies, and provides evidence for the presence of multiple distinctY. pestisstrains in Europe. We offer genetic evidence for the presence of the Justinianic Plague in the British Isles, previously only hypothesized from ambiguous documentary accounts, as well as southern France and Spain, and that southern Germany seems to have been affected by at least two distinctY. pestisstrains. Four of the reported strains form a polytomy similar to others seen across theY. pestisphylogeny, associated with the Second and Third Pandemics. We identified a deletion of a 45 kb genomic region in the most recent First Pandemic strain affecting two virulence factors, intriguingly overlapping with a deletion found in 17th–18th-century genomes of the Second Pandemic.Significance StatementThe first historically reported pandemic attributed toYersinia pestisstarted with the Justinianic Plague (541–544) and continued for around 200 years as the so-called First Pandemic. To date, only oneY. pestisstrain from this pandemic has been reconstructed using ancient DNA. In this study, we present six new genomes from Britain, France, Germany and Spain, demonstrating the geographic range of plague during the First pandemic and showing microdiversity in the Early Medieval Period. Moreover, we detect similar genome decay during the First and Second Pandemic (17thto 18thcentury) that includes the same two virulence factors, thus providing an example of potential convergent evolution ofY. pestisduring large scale epidemics.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

AncientYersinia pestisgenomes from across Western Europe reveal early diversification during the First Pandemic (541–750)

Keller

Spyrou²,

Scheib

et al. 2018

Preprint

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“…After the Bronze Age, bubonic plague has been associated with three historically recorded pandem ics. The earliest accounts of the so called first plague pandemic, which began with the Plague of Justinian (541 ce), suggest that it erupted in northern Africa in the mid6th century ce 163,164 and subsequently spread through Europe and the vicinity until ~750 ce. The sec ond historically recorded plague pandemic began with the infamous Black Death (1346-1353 ce) 96 and con tinued with outbreaks in Europe until the 18th century ce.…”

Section: Molecular Insights From Three Historical Plague Pandemicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ancient pathogen genomics as an emerging tool for infectious disease research

et al. 2019

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| Over the past decade, a genomics revolution, made possible through the development of high-throughput sequencing, has triggered considerable progress in the study of ancient DNA , enabling complete genomes of past organisms to be reconstructed. A newly established branch of this field, ancient pathogen genomics, affords an in-depth view of microbial evolution by providing a molecular fossil record for a number of human-associated pathogens. Recent accomplishments include the confident identification of causative agents from past pandemics, the discovery of microbial lineages that are now extinct, the extrapolation of past emergence events on a chronological scale and the characterization of long-term evolutionary history of microorganisms that remain relevant to public health today. In this Review , we discuss methodological advancements, persistent challenges and novel revelations gained through the study of ancient pathogen genomes.

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“…Whereas the first comprehensive phylogenetic study on Y. pestis favoured an East Asian origin (Cui et al, 2013), other scenarios assume an origin in Central Asia or the Caucasus (Benedictow, 2004; Namouchi et al, 2018; Sussman, 2011). Similarly, the origin of the Justinianic Plague (541–544 AD) has long been hypothesized to have originated in Africa (Achtman et al, 1999; Cui et al, 2008; Sarris, 2002). More recent studies however agree that the strains causing the First Pandemic (541–750 AD) likely emerged in Central Asia (Eroshenko et al, 2017; Harper, 2017; Wagner et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%