Bronze Age Yersinia pestis genome from sheep sheds light on hosts and evolution of a prehistoric plague lineage
Most human pathogens are of zoonotic origin. Many emerged during prehistory, coinciding with domestication providing more opportunities for spillover into human populations. However, we lack direct DNA evidence linking animal and human infections during prehistory. Here, we present a Yersinia pestis genome recovered from a 3rd-millennium BCE domesticated sheep from the Eurasian Steppe belonging to the Late Neolithic Bronze Age (LNBA) lineage, until now exclusively identified in ancient humans across Eurasia. We show that this ancient lineage underwent ancestral gene decay paralleling extant lineages, but evolved under distinct selective pressures, contributing to its lack of geographic differentiation. We collect evidence supporting a scenario where the LNBA lineage, unable to efficiently transmit via fleas, spread from an unidentified reservoir to sheep and likely other domesticates, elevating human infection risk. Collectively, our results connect prehistoric livestock with infectious disease in humans and showcase the power of moving paleomicrobiology into the zooarchaeological record.
Authors
- Taylor R. Hermes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8377-468X)
- Choongwon Jeong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3049-2352)
- Christina Warinner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4528-5877)
- Felix M. Key (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2812-6636)
- William P. Hanage (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6319-7336)
- Alexander Herbig (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1176-1166)
- П. А. Косинцев (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0973-7426)
- Raffaela A. Bianco (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-6087-8031)
- Lena Semerau (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9453-633X)
- Donghee Kim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1919-6800)
- Ian Light-Maka (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6720-3732)
- Valeriia Alekseeva
Institutions
- Ural Federal University (RU)
- Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (US)
- Seoul National University (KR)
- Altai State University (RU)
- New Generation University College (ET)
- Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology (DE)
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (DE)
- Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology (RU)
- Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (DE)
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Cell
- Published
- 2025-08-11
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.07.029
- Citations
- 8
- Primary Topic
- Yersinia bacterium, plague, ectoparasites research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 14.54