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The bacteria that causes the bubonic plague is called Yersinia pestis. This bacteria also causes the other two forms of plague: septicemic plague and pneumonic plague (see Types of Plague).
The Yersinia pestis bacterium causes both bubonic plague, a form of the disease you get from a flea or rat bite, and pneumonic plague, a respiratory infection you get by inhaling the bacteria. Bubonic plague kills via a deadly blood infection, while pneumonic plague causes a fatal pneumonia. Now, scientists have uncovered the steps that led the ancestor of Y. pestis to evolve into the deadly pathogen that causes pneumonic and bubonic plague.