This makes the Maltese population ideal for testing the hypothesis that the Black Death (particularly that of 1346-52) was responsible for a genetic shift that spread the CCR5-Δ32 allele.
Here a new hydrolysis-probe-based real-time PCR assay was designed to ascertain CCR5 allele frequency in 53 individuals from a 10th- to 12th-century CE church and convent complex in central Germany that predates outbreaks of the Black Death pandemic.