The Plagued Silk Route: Yersinia pestis molecular signatures in 17th century camelids from Romania

Six camels (R01-R06) exhumed from a 17th century Silk Route site in Agighiol, Romania, along with negative controls, were blindly investigated via dental pulp paleometagenomics and paleoproteomics for traces of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis complex including the plague agent Yersinia pestis. Sample R04 yielded a 32 bp read specific for the Y. pseudotuberculosis complex valine-tRNA ligase gene; sample R05 yielded a 30 bp and a 33 bp reads specific for the Y. pseudotuberculosis complex. Further, samples R04 and R05 yielded a 16S rRNA guanine transferase specific for Y. pestis and one other Y. pseudotuberculosis complex peptide. Taken together, these validated data suggest that these ancient camels were infected with plague and likely participated in plague dissemination along ancient Silk Routes during the large Medieval and Modern Times pandemic in Europe.