The Guts of Our Ancestors

Amazing stuff!

The article/research is somewhat ideologically tainted by suggesting that our food in modern times caused a loss in gut microbial diversity and that the food of ancient peoples was more diverse than our Western industrialized food! Very questionable hypotheses or preconceived notions like the Noble Savage fantasies!

"Over the past several years, scientists have generated intriguing insights suggesting that variations in gut microbiomes—the collections of bacteria and other microbes in our digestive systems—may play harmful roles that precipitate the development of diabetes and other diseases.

Now, researchers ... have found dramatic differences between gut microbiomes from ancient North American peoples and modern microbiomes, offering further clues about how these microbes may have evolved with changing  diets.

For the study, the scientists analyzed microbial DNA found in indigenous human paleofeces (desiccated excrement) from unusually dry caves in Utah and northern Mexico.

The work, published May 12 in Nature, is believed to represent the most in-depth genomic analysis of ancient human gut microbiomes to date and the first to reveal never-before-identified microbial species from the specimens ...
The ancient samples also had lower numbers of genes that produce proteins that degrade the protective mucous layer of the intestine, a process that can lead to inflammation that’s been linked to various diseases. ...
“In ancient cultures, the foods people ate were very diverse and could support the growth and presence of a more eclectic collection of microbes,” [the researcher] said."

"Loss of gut microbial diversity in industrial populations is associated with chronic diseases, underscoring the importance of studying our ancestral gut microbiome. However, relatively little is known about the composition of pre-industrial gut microbiomes. Here we performed a large-scale de novo assembly of microbial genomes from palaeofaeces. From eight authenticated human palaeofaeces samples (1,000–2,000 years old) with well-preserved DNA from southwestern USA and Mexico, we reconstructed 498 medium- and high-quality microbial genomes. Among the 181 genomes with the strongest evidence of being ancient and of human gut origin, 39% represent previously undescribed species-level genome bins. ..."

The Guts of Our Ancestors | Harvard Medical School Ancient gut microbiomes may hold clues for modern diseases

Here is the underlying research article:

Reconstruction of ancient microbial genomes from the human gut (open access)