Scientists map Black Death

British scientists have decoded the genetic sequence of the bacteria that causes Black Death, otherwise known as the plague. The discovery may lead to the production of a vaccine or treatments for the disease, which still affects people around the world today and is viewed as a potential weapon for bio-terrorists.

The scientists found that the plague bacterium is a recent descendant of a benign stomach-dwelling bug. Brendan Wren, a geneticist from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, one of the organisations which took part in the research, said that 'two thousand years ago it would have given you tummy-ache'. The bug is thought to have evolved over only a few hundred years, a relatively short time. In doing so, it learnt to move from fleas and mammals to humans, where it adapted to live in the blood, rather than the gut.

Team leader Julian Parkhill, of the Sanger Centre in Cambridge, says that the DNA code of the disease will form 'the basis of all future work' on the plague.