Plagued by a cryptic clock: insight and issues from the global phylogeny of Yersinia pestis
Journal: Communications Biology
Year: 2023

Abstract Plague has an enigmatic history as a zoonotic pathogen. This infectious disease will unexpectedly appear in human populations and disappear just as suddenly. As a result, a long-standing line of inquiry has been to estimate when and where plague appeared in the past. However, there have been significant disparities between phylogenetic studies of the causative bacterium, Yersinia pestis , regarding the timing and geographic origins of its reemergence. Here, we curate and contextualize a