Article
A prehistoric East-Asian Yersinia pestis genome and a ~5.3 ka trans-Eurasian expansion of plague.
Nature communications - 24 Jul 2026
Sun Bing, Wu Yarong, Zhang Daxuan, Mu Kai, Guo Yan, Fu Shuang, Sui Mingru, Li Chunxiang, Zhang Wenrui, Chen Shan, Poliakov Andrei, Lazaretov Igor, Quan Qiankun, Song Yajun, Yang Ruifu, Cui Yinqiu, Cui Yujun
Abstract excerpt
Plague, caused by Yersinia pestis, has affected human societies for millennia, yet the timing, scale and biological shifts underlying its earliest spread remain unclear. Here, we screened 1,400 ancient human remains from eastern Eurasia (8,000-400 cal. BP) and recovered three prehistoric Y. pestis genomes, including one from East Asia. Integrating these data with 136 published ancient and modern Y. pestis...
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