That is a good link that you posted, and has a lot of real science.
Thank you. It's interesting that the pla gene they sequenced for shows a point mutation from what's available in genbank today. It's also a fairly significant (size and hydrophobicitywise) mutation, phenylalanine to serine. Phenylalanine is fairly large and has a big non polar aromatic group. Serine is small and polar. No idea what this might do w. regard to the virulence aspect, but there are undoubtedly other differences in other genes they didn't sequence for. It would be interesting for them to sequence the whole genome of this particular bug and compare it to 'modern' y. pestis. I have read several theories that maintain that y. pestis mutated itself into 'not as virulent' somewhere along the end of the 1600's. Interesting to see if this is true. Modern plague sequencing and information can be found at....
Sanger Yersinia Pestis Sequencing Project Home