Possible Plague Reoccurance

Justinian Plague

This plague had a huge impact on the Roman Empire, and was partially the reason why it ended the empire as well. The Justinian Plague had killed almost half of what was the Roman Empire. Over a period of 800 years this plague had died off until it made a re-occurrence in Europe, which was known as the Black Death. The Black Death also had the same effect; it also killed almost half of the population in Europe.

Scientists started to get curious on the two most historic plagues that have occurred in history. Therefore, they decided to compile some research on the pathogen that was able to kill so many people in a short amount of time. This research was done by looking at 1500 year old teeth of the victims of the Justinian Plague, and scientists were able to extract small pieces of the pathogen's DNA. As a result they were able to reconstruct the bacterium responsible for the plague, which was called Yersinia petis.



This reconstruction process is a very meticulous, because researchers must isolate the DNA by using a modified phenol-chloroform (liquid extraction that separates molecules). Then the DNA strands collected from this extraction will go through sequencing, and will then be able to reconstruct the DNA ultimately. Once the DNA has been reconstructed, it goes through the database and compared with other genomes that are known. This strand also had relations with other plagues in history such as the Plague of the Athens. Also scientists are now believing that the plague originated from Asia, rather than Africa. However, it is still unclear of the amount of time it took for the pathogen to travel to the Roman Empire.

Ultimately, since the Justinian Plague has similar strands to other plagues in history, there is still a possibility that there will be a plague in the future.

For more information: http://dailynews.mcmaster.ca/article/scientists-reveal-cause-of-one-of-the-most-devastating-pandemics-in-human-history/