The influence of the Black Death on current human genetics

An international team of scientists who analyzed the DNA of victims and survivors of the bubonic plague pandemic (Black Death or La Peste) that devastated much of the world centuries ago and exterminated a significant portion of humanity, has identified the key genetic differences that determined who survived the pandemic of the evil that came to be called the Black Death, and who perished, and how those aspects of the immune system of those who survived, and of us as their descendants, have marked the predominant human genetics today and the preponderance of certain traits, not necessarily good ones, of our immune system.

The team led by Hendrik Poinar, director of the Center for Ancient DNA at McMaster University in Canada, analyzed and identified the genes that protected a part of the population against the devastating bubonic plague pandemic that hit Europe, Asia and Africa almost 700 years ago. .

The team focused on a 100-year window before, during and after the Black Death pandemic, which remains the deadliest of all known, killing more than 50% of the inhabitants of what were then some one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

More than 500 ancient DNA samples were extracted and analyzed from the mortal remains of people who had died before, died of, or survived the plague in London, including individuals buried in plague graves. East Smithfield Plague, used for mass burials in 1348 and 1349. Additional samples of mortal remains were taken from subjects buried at five other locations, in Denmark.

To carry out the study, among other things, the analysis of the DNA present in the teeth of people who died during the time of the Black Death pandemic was used. (Photo: Matt Clarke/McMaster University)

Poinar and his colleagues looked for signs of genetic adaptation related to plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis.

The authors of the study have found that the same genes that once conferred protection against the Black Death are now associated with greater susceptibility to autoimmune diseases such as Crohn’s and rheumatoid arthritis.

The study is titled “Evolution of immune genes is associated with the Black Death.” And it has been published in the academic journal Nature. (Font: NCYT by Amazings)