Plague bug DNA confirms its role in Black Death

摘要

Black Death rampaged across Europe in 1348, killing a third of the population. Now the complete sequence of Yersinia pestis, the most likely cause of the Black Death, has been unearthed from a medieval mass grave in London. The mystery over the disease continues, however, as modern Yersinia infection - which causes bubonic plague - behaves very differently to the Black Death, yet its DNA is virtually unchanged.