Data from: Attenuation of virulence in Yersinia pestis across three plague pandemics
Creators: name: Sidhu, Ravneet Kaur
name: Mas Fiol, Guillem
name: Lê-Bury, Pierre
name: Demeure, Christian
name: Bougit, Emelyne
name: Beau, Remi
name: Balière, Charlotte
name: Kwasiborski, Aurelia
name: Caro, Valerie
name: Klunk, Jennifer
name: Salkeld, Daniel
name: Carmichael, Ann
name: Varlık, Nükhet
name: Poinar, Debi
name: Earn, David
name: Bolker, Benjamin
name: Dushoff, Jonathan
name: Golding, Brian
name: Rascovan, Nicolas
name: Dussurget, Olivier
name: Holmes, Edward
name: Pizarro-Cerda, Javier
name: Poinar, Hendrik
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Yersinia pestis
Ancient DNA
Evolutionary biology
Plasminogen activator
Virulence attentuation

description: Yersinia pestis has spilled over from wild rodent reservoirs to commensal rodents and humans causing three historically recorded pandemics. Depletion in the copy number of the plasmid-encoded virulence gene pla occurred in later-dated strains of the first and second pandemics, yet the biological relevance of the pla deletion has been difficult to test. We identified modern Y. pestis strains that independently acquired the same pla depletion as ancient strains, and herein show that excision of pla from the multi-copy pPCP1 plasmid is accompanied by the integration of a separate full pPCP1 harboring pla into the single-copy pCD1 plasmid, reducing pla dosage. Moreover, we demonstrate that this depletion decreases mortality of mice in models of bubonic plague, but not in the pneumonic and septicemic forms of the disease. We hypothesize that pla depletion may have been selectively advantageous in bubonic plague due to rodent fragmentation following pandemic-induced mortality.
description: Funding provided by: Social Sciences and Humanities Research CouncilROR ID: https://ror.org/04j5jqy92Award Number: 20008499
Funding provided by: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research CouncilROR ID: https://ror.org/01h531d29Award Number: CGS D - 569142 - 2022
Funding provided by: NIH Common FundROR ID: https://ror.org/001d55x84Award Number: R01-GM134376
Funding provided by: McMaster UniversityROR ID: https://ror.org/02fa3aq29Award Number: 
Funding provided by: Nvidia (United States)ROR ID: https://ror.org/03jdj4y14Award Number: ANR-16-CONV-0005
Funding provided by: Institut PasteurROR ID: https://ror.org/0495fxg12Award Number: ANR-10-LBX-62-IBEID
Funding provided by: Agence de l'innovation de défenseROR ID: https://ror.org/04mdawb03Award Number: ANRS-0349b
Funding provided by: ASTRID maturation GENO-PESTCrossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: ANR-23-ASM2-007-01
Funding provided by: ASTRIDCrossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: ANR-18-ASTR-0004
Funding provided by: EUR G.E.N.E. Doctoral SchoolCrossref Funder Registry ID: Award Number: ANR-17-EURE-0013
Funding provided by: Fondation pour la Recherche MédicaleROR ID: https://ror.org/04w6kn183Award Number: FDT20220401-5222
Funding provided by: Agence Nationale de Recherches sur le Sida et les Hépatites ViralesROR ID: https://ror.org/01kv58h76Award Number: ANRS-0350b
Funding provided by: Agence de l'innovation de défenseROR ID: https://ror.org/04mdawb03Award Number: AID - DGA