The Black Death shaped the evolution of immunity genes, setting the course for how we respond to disease today. An international team of scientists analyzed centuries-old DNA from victims and survivors of the Black Death pandemic and identified key genetic differences that determined who lived an
Using DNA extracted from teeth of people who died before, during and during the Black Death pandemic, researchers were able to identify genetic differences that dictated who survived and who died from the virus. Credit: Matt Clarke/McMaster University
The team focused on a 100-year window before, during, and after the Black Death, which reached London in the mid-1300s. It remains the single greatest human mortality event in recorded history, killing upwards of 50 percent of the people in what were then some of the most densely populated parts of the world.
“When a pandemic of this nature – killing 30 to 50 percent of the population – occurs, there is bound to be selection for protective alleles in humans, which is to say people susceptible to the circulating pathogen will succumb. Even a slight advantage means the difference between surviving or passing.
The team reports that over time our immune systems have evolved to respond in different ways to pathogens, to the point that what had once been a protective gene against plague in the Middle Ages is today associated with increased susceptibility to autoimmune diseases. This is the balancing act upon which evolution plays with our genome.
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