American scientists have discovered a remarkable similarity between the gut bacteria of two Indigenous peoples living on different continents. The study suggests that some microorganisms may have accompanied humanity for thousands of years, passing from generation to generation during ancient migrations. The University of California, Santa Barbara, reports this, citing a study published in the journal Nature, UNN writes.
Details
Scientists from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Stanford University studied the gut microbiome of the Tsimané people, who live in Bolivia, and the Hadza people, whose members live in Tanzania and maintain a traditional hunter-gatherer way of life.
In the gut microbiomes of the populations studied, scientists identified more than 1,200 species of bacteria. At the same time, more than 60% of these species are rare or entirely absent in people living in industrialized societies.
Ancient bacteria may have traveled around the world with humans
What particularly surprised the researchers was that the gut microbiomes of the two peoples turned out to be similar despite significant differences in diet. The Hadza consume the meat of wild animals, fish, fruit, and other gathered foods, whereas the Tsimané diet contains more plant fiber, including plantains, rice, cassava, and maize.
This made us wonder whether there really is a core set of bacterial and other species that traveled with the ancestors of the Tsimané during their migration around the world
To test this hypothesis, the scientists analyzed the genetic characteristics of bacterial DNA and used the rate of mutation accumulation to estimate when the bacteria of the two populations diverged from common ancestral lineages. The results indicated a connection dating back thousands of years.
The analysis shows strong evidence that their ancestors, and probably all of us, had these same bacteria long ago
According to the scientists, the findings help provide a better understanding of the history of the human microbiome and how changes in lifestyle and diet may have affected the diversity of gut bacteria in modern populations.