Diagnosing plague in 17th century camelids from Romania along historical Silk Routes
Six camels exhumed from a 17th-century Silk Route site in Romania, along with negative controls, were blindly investigated via dental pulp paleometagenomics and paleoproteomics for traces of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis complex including the plague agent Yersinia pestis. Specific reads were detected in sample R04 (one read) and R05 (two reads) which also yielded a 16S rRNA guanine transferase specific for Y. pestis and one other Y. pseudotuberculosis complex peptide. Taken together, these validated data diagnosed plague in these ancient camels which likely participated in plague dissemination along ancient Silk Routes during the large Medieval and Modern Times pandemic in Europe.
Authors
- Hamadou Oumarou Hama (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8575-4500)
- Gérard Aboudharam (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4472-9154)
- Mahmoud A. Boualam (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9394-3977)
- Jean Armengaud (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1589-445X)
- Valentin Radu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9937-914X)
- Michel Drancourt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0768-1139)
- Adrian Bălăşescu
Institutions
- University of Bucharest (RO)
- Aix-Marseille Université (FR)
- Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR)
- Université Paris-Saclay (FR)
- Méditerranée Infection Foundation (FR)
- Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement (FR)
- Technologies pour la Santé (FR)
- CEA Paris-Saclay (FR)
- Romanian Academy (RO)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Infection Genetics and Evolution
- Published
- 2025-08-22
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.meegid.2025.105814
- Primary Topic
- Yersinia bacterium, plague, ectoparasites research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00