Scientists said that the plague has not yet disappeared due to the ability of the plague rod to hide inside the amoeba, using for this purpose a special protein. The findings of the researchers were published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

The researchers suggested that the plague rod Yersinia pestis is able to use amoeba as a reservoir, which allows it to spread. Scientists have grown and mixed colonies of the three most dangerous strains of the plague rod and the colony Acanthamoeba castellanii - soil amoebae. Then a substance was added to the tube, which killed the plague rod, but the bacteria, even though they survived. As it turned out, they "hide" in amoeba, waiting for an opportunity.

In this case, Yersinia pestis uses a special protein that gives the amoeba signal is not its. When removing the gene responsible for the production of this protein, Yersinia pestis began to dissolve in the amoeba when it was absorbed.

According to scientists, this symbiosis of amoebas and bacteria can explain both the deadly nature of the epidemic of antiquity and the lack of positive achievements in the matter of the complete eradication of the plague in our days.