An international team – led by researchers at McMaster University and the University of Tubingen in Germany – has sequenced the entire genome of the Black Death, one of the most devastating epidemics in human history.
This marks the first time scientists have been able to draft a reconstructed genome of any ancient pathogen, which will allow researchers to track changes in the pathogen’s evolution and virulence over time. This work – currently published online in the scientific journal Nature - could lead to a better understanding of modern infectious diseases.
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