Overview
- The Nature study published Thursday reports Yersinia pestis DNA in 18 of 46 people from four Lake Baikal cemeteries, a detection rate near 40 percent.
- Researchers reconstructed ancient bacterial genomes from teeth and identified a previously unknown superantigen, a toxin-linked gene that can trigger extreme immune reactions.
- Radiocarbon dating and burial patterns show many graves clustered in a short time and include family groups and an unusually high number of children, consistent with rapid, lethal outbreaks.
- Authors propose spillover from wild marmots as a plausible animal source and argue these findings mean severe plague could arise before flea-driven transmission or urban conditions.
- The study relied on advanced paleogenomic methods and it calls for broader sampling across Eurasia to map how far and how often these early, highly virulent strains spread.