A recent study examined the DNA of a few skeletons from the Middle Ages of the thirteenth century and discovered that certain mutations helped people to escape the plague related to some immune diseases that still affect people today. The black death or turbulent plague of Europe 700 years ago killed 50% of the population.
The study demonstrated how plague survivors benefited from a “good” variable from a particular gene called ERAP2, which helped increase survival rates. Because the plague is thought to have caused the strongest pulse of natural selection in humans to date by killing more than 200 million people, the study set out to find the survivors who had mutations, or booms, in their genomes that shielded them from the disease.
According to my knowledge, this is the first proof that the black death was a significant selection pressure prior to the creation of the human immune system.
Scientists analyzed the DNA taken from the teeth of 206 of the old skeletons, and were successfully managed to isolate and dating human remains before, during or after the black death, in the collective burials in London and Denmark.
So, according to geneticist Louis Pariro at the University of Chicago, “the King [Edward III] bought this time, this plot of land, and started to dig it.” More than 700 persons were interred here, in this cemetery east of Smithfeld, creating layers of bodies stacked on top of one another. ”The city closed the cemetery when the disease has ended..
Study: There are increased genetic risks for autoimmune illnesses among Black Death survivors.
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