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Rational Taxonomy of Yersinia pestis

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Abstract

Plague is a zoonotic infection whose pathogenic agent has caused hundreds of million human deaths. A broad range of hosts and vectors, along with the geographical dispersion of natural plague foci characterized by different ecological conditions, contribute to the formation of the polytypic Y. pestis species, the result of selection of the genetic variants specific for certain natural foci. Through the efforts of a world consortium of scientists, a global coordinated phylogram of the SNP types of the plague pathogen has been developed. However, debates on the intraspecies Y. pestis taxonomy still continue on the vast Russian expanses. The work of a taxonomist has many specific, individual features, formed on the basis of individual experience. It is important in this kind of work to follow an old rule which requires that borders should be placed where they have been put by nature, and should not be put where nature has not put them. With that in mind, we suggest here the rational variant of the plague pathogen nomenclature constructed in accordance with the rules set out in the International Code of Bacterial Nomenclature and Evolutionary Taxonomy.

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Funding

The work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant no. 14-15-00599).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Research Center for Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Well-Being, 142279, Obolensk, Russia

    A. A. Kislichkina, A. S. Vagaiskaya, A. G. Bogun, S. V. Dentovskaya & A. P. Anisimov

  2. Research Institute of Molecular Medicine, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation, 119991, Moscow, Russia

    M. E. Platonov

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  1. A. A. Kislichkina
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  2. M. E. Platonov
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  5. S. V. Dentovskaya
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  6. A. P. Anisimov
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Correspondence to A. P. Anisimov.

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Translated by E. Martynova

Abbreviations: bv., biovar; DDBJ/ENA/GenBank, DNA Data Bank of Japan/European Nucleotide Archive/GenBank; DFR, Different Region; IS, insertion sequence; MLVA, multi locus VNTR analysis; s.l., sensu lato, s.s., sensu stricto; SNP, single nucleotide polymorphism; subsp., subspecies; var., variant; b, base pairs.

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Kislichkina, A.A., Platonov, M.E., Vagaiskaya, A.S. et al. Rational Taxonomy of Yersinia pestis. Mol. Genet. Microbiol. Virol. 34, 110–117 (2019). https://doi.org/10.3103/S0891416819020058

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