On Tue, 30 Aug 2016 16:06:29 -0700, Winston_Smith
<
inv...@butterfly.net> wrote:
>Do you suppose countries that don't like us may have scientists that
>can do the same thing?
>WS
>
>
>
http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/30/health/ancient-plague-genome/
>Why scientists reconstructed an ancient plague
>By Jacqueline Howard, CNN
>
>(CNN)Scientists have just reconstructed the genome of an ancient
>plague, which may shed new light on how certain diseases can either
>mysteriously disappear or continue to evolve and spread.
>About 1,500 years ago, frequent outbreaks of the world's first known
>plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, killed more than 25
>million people and sickened many others in the Mediterranean basin
>with "flu-like" symptoms. The pandemic, which was called the Justinian
>Plague after the sixth-century Byzantine emperor Justinian I, lasted
>to the mid-eighth century.
>
>Now, researchers in Germany have sequenced the genome of the Y. pestis
>strain that they believe caused the Justinian Plague but hasn't been
>seen since, according to a new study published in the journal
>Molecular Biology and Evolution on Tuesday.
>
>Variations of Y. pestis are thought to have caused at least three
>known plague pandemics. The Justinian plague was the first, and the
>Black Death, a pandemic that emerged in the Middle Ages and killed up
>to half of the European population, was the second. The third plague
>pandemic began in late 19th-century China, giving rise to many of the
>subsequent plagues that exist today.
>
>The newly sequenced genome reveals that the Y. pestis strain linked to
>the Justinian Plague indeed differs from the strain linked to the
>Black Death. (A genome of the Y. pestis strain behind the Black Death
>was published in a separate study in 2011.)
>
>Therefore, "this study provides a better understanding of the history
>and the biology of the disease," said Michal Feldman, a researcher at
>the Max Planck Institute and the University of Tubingen in Germany,
>who served as first author of the study.
>
>"We still do not know why the Justinian plague suddenly vanished,"
>Feldman said. "The bacterium causing the Black Death and the
>Justinianic one is the same bacterium, Y. pestis, and this was already
>reported on in previous studies. However, the strains of the bacteria
>-- you can also call them variations if you like -- causing the two
>pandemics were different, and the Justinianic strain is extinct
>today."
>
>Old bones hold new clues
>
>The researchers examined the skeletons of two Justinian plague
>victims. The remains were unearthed in 1966 among several hundred
>other skeletons in a large medieval cemetery in rural southern
>Germany.
>
>"A communal burial indicates simultaneous death, or death close in
>time of those interred, and could therefore also indicate that an
>epidemic occurred," said Andreas Rott, a researcher at the State
>Collection of Anthropology and Palaeoanatomy in Munich, Germany, and a
>co-author of the study.
>
>The teeth of the plague victims, a man and a woman, were analyzed and
>used to extract DNA samples. The researchers separated the human DNA
>from bacterial DNA in order to sequence the Y. pestis genome.
>
>After analyzing the reconstructed genome, the researchers found clues
>that this ancient strain of Y. pestis might have had Chinese origins,
>which was also found in a 2014 study from a separate research team.
>
>Additionally, the new findings provide evidence that the Justinian
>plague hit rural Germany. "But more data is needed to determine the
>rate in which the disease had spread," Feldman said.
>
>"How the pathogen reached southern Germany is at present unknown.
>Possibly, it traveled across the Alps from the Mediterranean or from
>France and western Germany. It could have also traveled up the Danube
>[River] from the east," Feldman said. "The exact trade routes that the
>disease traveled in are a subject of debate among scholars. It was
>transmitted either by people or by rats that were 'traveling' with
>cargo."
>
>'Always good to have more ancient genomes'
>
>Between 1,000 and 2,000 plague cases caused by Y. pestis are reported
>to the World Health Organization each year, according to the Centers
>for Disease Control and Prevention. The three most endemic countries
>are Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Peru.
>
>In the United States, 15 people were infected with the bubonic plague
>last year, and about four of them died.
>
>Antibiotics and antimicrobials are often used to treat the plague.
>However, with further research, many scientists think that the genomes
>of ancient pathogens could lead to improved treatments to eliminate
>plague-related deaths.
>
>"I think it's interesting and always good to have more ancient
>genomes," said Hendrik Poinar, a molecular evolutionary geneticist and
>biological anthropologist at McMaster University in Canada, who was
>not involved in the new study.
>
>More genomes could allow scientists to better detect any small changes
>in the evolution of a pathogen that may affect how quickly it can
>spread and cause disease, Poinar said. "Those sorts of things are
>critical for understanding eradication in currently plague-hit areas,
>such as Madagascar."
For decades, the sudden deaths of researchers in diseases has been
noticed. Typically, it's someone traveling to a foreign city to
attend a conference, or some similar occasion. The term "Mosad" often
comes up.