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SUMMARY:The Genetic History of the Plague: From the Stone Age to the 18th 
 Century - Prof. Dr. Johannes Krause (Max Planck Institute)
DTSTART:20201023T121500Z
DTEND:20201023T130000Z
UID:TALK151666@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Alette Blom
DESCRIPTION:High throughput DNA sequencing has revolutionized the field of
  archaeogenetics in the past decade\, providing a better understanding of 
 human genetic history\, past population dynamics and host pathogen interac
 tions through time. Targeted DNA capture approaches have allowed reconstru
 cting complete ancient bacterial genomes providing direct insights into th
 e evolution and origin of some of the most infamous bacterial pathogens kn
 own to humans such as Yersinia pestis\, Mycobacterium tuberculosis or Myco
 bacterium leprae. Here the potential of ancient pathogen genomics is discu
 ssed using Yersinia pestis as a model organism. Phylogenetic comparisons o
 f modern and ancient Y.pestis strains spanning over 5000 years of human hi
 story from the Stone Age to modern times are presented. They provide direc
 t evidence for the timing and emergence of major virulence factors essenti
 al for the transmission of bacteria by fleas. Some of the oldest reconstru
 cted genomes of Y.pestis that are fully capable of causing the bubonic for
 m of plague from the Eastern European Bronze Age are furthermore presented
 . Suggesting that the emergence of this form of the disease happened more 
 than 1000 years earlier than previously suggested. Temporal studies of pat
 hogens might thus throw new light on the origin of human diseases and pote
 ntially allow predicting and preventing further transmissions and dissemin
 ation in the future.
LOCATION:Online via zoom
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