壁挂式燃气取暖炉:欧洲的黑死病造就了现代的瘟疫菌株(图)

来源:百度文库 编辑:偶看新闻 时间:2024/04/29 16:35:32

 Europe's Black Death Spawned Modern Plague Strains

by Martin Enserink    胡德良

 These skeletons—excavated in the 1980s from a 14th century graveyard in London—belonged to six of the estimated 30 million people who died from the Black Death, the plague epidemic that swept Europe between 1347 and 1351. Researchers have now used teeth from the same graveyard—home to some 2500 plague victims—to reconstruct 99% of the genome of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague. An analysis of that microbial DNA, published online today in Nature, suggests that Y. pestis strains currently circulating around the world are all descendents of the medieval strain, which is believed to have killed 30% to 60% of Europe's population. The 14th century genome closely resembled those of modern strains and did not have any obvious unique mutations that might explain its unprecedented virulence. Other factors—such as the population's susceptibility or the ecology of rodents and fleas, which help spread the disease—were probably responsible for the medieval massacre, the team concludes.  黑死病是在1347年到1351年之间横扫欧洲的流行瘟疫,估计有3000万人死于该瘟疫。这些骷髅是20世纪80年代从伦敦14世纪时的墓地中发掘出来的,属于六个死于黑死病的人。现在研究人员利用来自同一个墓地的牙齿,重建了99%的鼠疫菌。该墓地埋葬着大约2500个瘟疫受害者,鼠疫菌就是引起黑死病的细菌。今天,研究人员在《自然》杂志在线版上发表了对这种细菌DNA的分析,分析表明目前在全世界传播的鼠疫菌菌株都是中世纪鼠疫菌的后代,人们认为当时的鼠疫菌杀死了30%至60%的欧洲人口。十四世纪时的鼠疫菌基因组跟现代菌株的基因组极为相似,没有明显的独特变异,这可能说明了它为何有着史无前例的毒性。研究小组得出结论:其他因素,如人群的易感性或者鼠类和跳蚤的生态,也会帮助疾病的传播,很可能是造成中世纪大规模死亡的原因。