Scientists reconstruct genome of the Black Death
An international group of scientists has successfully sequenced the entire genome of the Black Death, the epidemic that killed 60% of Europe's population in the 14th century.
According to Ole J. Benedictow, the Black Death killed 50 million people in the fourteenth century, or 60 per cent of Europe’s entire population. The epidemic was a form of the bubonic plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis that circulates among wild rodents. Scientists have now successfully sequenced the entire genome of the Black Death from the remains of its victims. The international team, led by geneticists at McMaster University in Canada and the University of Tubingen in Germany, published the results of their research on October 12th in the scientific journal Nature.
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