This MSNBC article cites research that states that in doing forensic DNA work on bodies of Black Death victims the strain of Yersinia pestis that caused the Black Death is extinct. The next article identifies that there has been very little evolution in the bacterium.The last article identifies how antibiotics have adjusted our thinking of bacterial pandemics.
What do you think of the research? What errors could there be? What other evidence is there that the strain of Y. pestis that caused Black Death is no longer with us? What would have caused there to be so little evolution in the bacterium? Could the conditions that are cited in the latter articles arise again to cause another pandemic?
I think the research is interesting but also slightyly creepy. Many errors could occur within the experiment. The data could be collected wrong and the strain of Yersinia pestis could be falsly detected and/or mistaken for the more modern relative of the strain. Evidence that the strain is "extinct" has been validated through research of bodies that suffered from the Black Death. Researchers believe that the strain that caused the Black Death is extinct but its more modern relative, which causes outbreaks every few years around the world, still survives.
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