Conflict of Molecular and Ecological Phylogenies of the Plague Microbe Yersinia pestis: A Search for Consensus

The introduction of molecular genetic (MG) methods into the study of the causative agent of plague, the microbe Yersinia pestis, has led to two important discoveries in the problem of reconstructing the phylogenetic history of this apocalyptic pathogen. Its direct ancestor was identified as the causative agent of intestinal infection, Far Eastern scarlet-like fever (FESLF, Y. pseudotuberculosis 0:1b), and the time of divergence from the direct ancestor was established at no earlier than 30 000 years ago, in the Late Pleistocene or Holocene. However, the molecular methodology does not allow us to create a sufficiently substantiated scenario of the origin and global expansion of the plague microbe. The MG conclusions are not consistent with the facts provided by other natural sciences, primarily ecology and biogeography. At the same time, these discoveries made it possible to create a consistent ecological (ECO) scenario and propose a phylogenetic scheme reflecting the processes of speciation and intraspecific diversification of the plague microbe, which can become a visual evolutionary model for improving the phylogenetic methodology.