Plagued for millennia: The complex transmission and ecology of prehistoric Yersinia pestis

The plague bacterium Yersinia pestis is known as one of the most infamous and deadliest pathogens in human history. Using archaeogenetics we reconstructed 17 ancient genomes from the late Neolithic and Bronze Age in Eurasia to explore its early diversity and evolution. Our data suggest ecological differences between these prehistoric strains and modern as well as other pandemic Y. pestis strains.