Ancient <i>Yersinia pestis</i> genomes from across Western Europe reveal early diversification during the First Pandemic (541-750)
Keller MPapers in this archive, Spyrou MAPapers in this archive, Scheib CLPapers in this archive, Neumann GUPapers in this archive, Kröpelin APapers in this archive, Haas-Gebhard BPapers in this archive, Päffgen BPapers in this archive, Haberstroh JPapers in this archive, Ribera I Lacomba APapers in this archive, Raynaud CPapers in this archive, Cessford CPapers in this archive, Durand RPapers in this archive, Stadler PPapers in this archive, Nägele KPapers in this archive, Bates JSPapers in this archive, Trautmann BPapers in this archive, Inskip SAPapers in this archive, Peters JPapers in this archive, Robb JEPapers in this archive, Kivisild TPapers in this archive, Castex DPapers in this archive, McCormick MPapers in this archive, Bos KIPapers in this archive, Harbeck MPapers in this archive, Herbig APapers in this archive, Krause JPapers in this archive
Abstract
The first historically reported pandemic attributed to Yersinia pestis started with the Justinianic Plague (541–544) and continued for around 200 y as the so-called First Pandemic. To date, only one Y. pestis strain from this pandemic has been reconstructed using ancient DNA. In this study, we present eight 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 Pandemics (14th to 18th century) that includes the same two virulence factors, thus providing an example of potential convergent evolution of Y. pestis during large-scale epidemics. Keywords: Justinianic Plague, ancient DNA, bacterial evolution, Anglo-Saxons, Merovingians
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