The teeth' samples helped scientists reach the origin of the Black Death, which killed tens of millions of people in Europe, Asia, and North Africa more than 600 years ago.
Experts believe they have identified the origins of the Black Death or bulbonic plague, which killed millions of people in Europe, Asia, and North Africa more than 600 years ago.
What is Bulbonic Plague or Black Death?
Bubonic plague is the most common type of plague caused by Yersinia pestis. It causes buboes, which are very swollen and painful lymph nodes under the arms, neck, or groin. Without treatment, the bacteria can spread to other parts of the body.
It was also known as the Black Death in the past due to the gangrenous blackening and death of body parts such as fingers and toes that can occur as a result of the illness.
Scientists Discovered the Origin of Black Death via Teeth
According to scientists' new analysis, it happened in the 1330s in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia. The research team from the University of Stirling in Scotland, the Max Planck Institute in Germany, and the University of Tubingen in Germany analysed ancient DNA samples from the teeth of skeletons in cemeteries around Lake Issyk Kul in Kyrgyzstan.
They chose this location after noticing an unusually high number of burials there between 1338 and 1339.
Dr Maria Spyrou, a researcher at the University of Tubingen, said that the team sequenced DNA extracted from the teeth of seven skeletons. They investigated the teeth, she said, because they contain a lot of blood vessels and give researchers "a lot of opportunities to find blood-borne pathogens that may have caused the people's deaths."
Hence, the experts were able to find the plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, in three of them. Moreover, a thorough examination of the bacterium's genome revealed that it was a direct descendent of the strain that caused the Black Death in Europe eight years later and that it was thus likely the cause of death for more than half of Europe's population over the next decade or so. The research, however, has some limitations due to the small sample size.
The research "The source of the Black Death in fourteenth-century central Eurasia" has recently been published in Nature.
