Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology, Kiel University, Rosalind-Franklin-Straße 12, Kiel 24105, Germany.
Unit of Anthropology, Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Southern Denmark, Odense M, 5230, Denmark.
Proc Biol Sci. 2023 Jul 26;290(2003):20230622. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2023.0622. Epub 2023 Jul 19.
is the causative agent of at least three major plague pandemics (Justinianic, Medieval and Modern). Previous studies on ancient genomes revealed that several genomic alterations had occurred approximately 5000-3000 years ago and contributed to the remarkable virulence of this pathogen. How a subset of strains evolved to cause the Modern pandemic is less well-understood. Here, we examined the virulence-associated prophage (Ypf), which had been postulated to be exclusively present in the genomes of strains associated with the Modern pandemic. The analysis of two new genomes from medieval/early modern Denmark confirmed that the phage is absent from the genome of strains dating to this time period. An extended comparative genome analysis of over 300 strains spanning more than 5000 years showed that the prophage is found in the genomes of modern strains only and suggests an integration into the genome during recent evolution. The phage-encoded Zot protein showed structural homology to a virulence factor of . Similar to modern , we observed phages with a common origin to Ypf in individual strains of other bacterial species. Our findings present an updated view on the prevalence of Ypf, which might contribute to our understanding of the host spectrum, geographical spread and virulence of responsible for the Modern pandemic.
是至少三种主要鼠疫大流行（查士丁尼、中世纪和现代）的病原体。以前对古代基因组的研究表明，大约在 5000-3000 年前发生了几次基因组改变，导致了这种病原体的显著毒力。人们对导致现代大流行的部分菌株是如何进化的还不太了解。在这里，我们研究了与毒力相关的噬菌体（Ypf），它被认为仅存在于与现代大流行相关的菌株的基因组中。对来自中世纪/早期现代丹麦的两个新基因组的分析证实，在这个时期的菌株基因组中不存在噬菌体。对跨越 5000 多年的 300 多个菌株的扩展比较基因组分析表明，该噬菌体仅存在于现代菌株的基因组中，并表明在最近的进化过程中整合到了基因组中。噬菌体编码的 Zot 蛋白与 的一种毒力因子具有结构同源性。与现代菌株一样，我们观察到在其他细菌物种的个别菌株中，与 Ypf 具有共同起源的噬菌体。我们的研究结果提供了一个关于 Ypf 流行的最新观点，这可能有助于我们理解现代大流行中导致的宿主范围、地理传播和毒力。
