Identification of Yersinia pestis as the causative organism of plague in India as determined by 16S rDNA sequencing and RAPD-based genomic fingerprinting

Eighteen isolates of bacteria obtained from the sputum of pneumonic plague patients and from the liver and spleen of rodents from the plague-affected areas of India during 1994-1995 when analyzed by 16S rDNA analysis clearly demonstrated that all 18 isolates exhibit an average similarity of 98.5% with the genus Yersinia and 99.1% with Yersinia pestis, thus identifying the isolates as Y. pestis. The isolates from the human plague patients were found to be genetically more homogeneous compared to the isolates from the rodents which were more heterogeneous. An epidemiological linkage among the rodents and human patients is also indicated by 16S rDNA analysis, which suggests that only a sub-population of the rodents was probably the source of the infectious pathogen to the humans initiating the outbreak of the epidemic. The results of the randomly amplified DNA polymorphisms (RAPD)-based DNA fingerprinting are in agreement with the above conclusions.