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Cited by 1,126Yersinia bacterium, plague, ectoparasites researchGenetic diversity and population structureForensic and Genetic Research

Yersinia pestis , the cause of plague, is a recently emerged clone of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis

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Achtman, Mark, Zurth, Kerstin, Morelli, Giovanna, Torrea, Gabriela, Guiyoule, Annie, Carniel, Elisabeth·1999·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
DOI 10.1073/pnas.96.24.14043PMC PMC24187
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Abstract

Plague, one of the most devastating diseases of human history, is caused by Yersinia pestis . In this study, we analyzed the population genetic structure of Y. pestis and the two other pathogenic Yersinia species, Y. pseudotuberculosis and Y. enterocolitica . Fragments of five housekeeping genes and a gene involved in the synthesis of lipopolysaccharide were sequenced from 36 strains representing the global diversity of Y. pestis and from 12–13 strains from each of the other species. No sequence diversity was found in any Y. pestis gene, and these alleles were identical or nearly identical to alleles from Y. pseudotuberculosis . Thus, Y. pestis is a clone that evolved from Y. pseudotuberculosis 1,500–20,000 years ago, shortly before the first known pandemics of human plague. Three biovars (Antiqua, Medievalis, and Orientalis) have been distinguished by microbiologists within the Y. pestis clone. These biovars form distinct branches of a phylogenetic tree based on restriction fragment length polymorphisms of the locations of the IS 100 insertion element. These data are consistent with previous inferences that Antiqua caused a plague pandemic in the sixth century, Medievalis caused the Black Death and subsequent epidemics during the second pandemic wave, and Orientalis caused the current plague pandemic.

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  • Yersinia pestis enables switching hosts with just a few horizontally acquired traits.

    “At the same time, Yersinia pestis enables switching hosts with just a few horizontally acquired traits.42”

    From Gut microbiota drives structural variation of exogenous probiotics to enhance colonization (2025) · cites this paper as [42]

    The Discussion describes a possible path in which acquisition of the pFra plasmid, followed by pPla, helped enable flea-mediated transmission to other mammals. It explicitly calls this evolutionary scenario “highly speculative,” so it does not establish that a few horizontally acquired traits suffice for host switching. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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Research works printed but not linked: 8

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Authors
Achtman, M., Zurth, K., Morelli, G., Torrea, G., Guiyoule, A., & Carniel, E.
Affiliations
  • Institut Pasteur (FR)
  • Max-Planck-Institut für molekulare Genetik, Ihnestrasse 73, 14195 Berlin, Germany; and Unité de Bactériologie Moléculaire et Médicale, Laboratoire des Yersinia, Institut Pasteur, 75724 Paris Cedex 15, France
ORCID
Venue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Published
1999-11-23
Volume
96
Issue
24
Pages
14043-14048
ISSN
  • 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
  • 1091-6490
DOI
10.1073/pnas.96.24.14043
PMC
PMC24187
OpenAlex
W2111205680
Cited by
1,126
References
43
Citations by year
2026: 14 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 38 · 2023: 33 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 31 · 2019: 36 · 2018: 29 · 2017: 29 · 2016: 44 · 2015: 42 · 2014: 63 · 2013: 47 · 2012: 61
FWCI
15.20
Type
journal article
Language
en
Update notices
correction (2000-07-05)
Open access
Locations
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Yersinia bacterium, plague, ectoparasites research
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic diversity and population structure
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Forensic and Genetic Research
Keywords
Yersinia pestis, plague, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, Yersinia enterocolitica, bacterial clonality, population structure, housekeeping genes, lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis, biovars, phylogenetic analysis, Black Death, plague pandemics, bacterial evolution
MeSH terms
Alleles, Base Sequence, DNA, Bacterial, Genes, Bacterial, Humans, Molecular Sequence Data, Plague, Yersinia pestis, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, Evolution, Molecular

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