Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of plague, is unique among the enteric group of Gram-negative bacteria in relying on a blood-feeding insect for transmission. The Yersinia-flea interactions that enable plague transmission cycles have had profound historical consequences as manifested by human plague pandemics. The arthropod-borne transmission route was a radical ecologic change from the foo…
The arthropod-borne transmission route of Yersinia pestis, the bacterial agent of plague, is a recent evolutionary adaptation.Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, the closely related food-and waterborne enteric species from which Y. pestis diverged less than 6,400 y ago, exhibits significant oral toxicity to the flea vectors of plague,whereas Y. pestis does not. In this study, we identify the Yersinia …