Prehistoric global migration of vanishing gut microbes with humans.

Prehistoric human migration is reflected in the shared gut microbiome, with 1,231 microbial species co-migrating with humans over tens of thousands of years.

• Why it matters: Understanding long-term microbial associations with humans can reveal how biodiversity loss impacts health, especially as many ancient microbes are disappearing from modern populations.
• What they did: Deep metagenomic sequencing of Tsimane and Hadza populations identified shared microbial species, and population genetic analyses of 636 species traced divergence patterns consistent with human migration out of Africa.
• The result: The study shows that a diverse gut microbiome co-migrated with humans globally and persisted for millennia, but many of these microbes are now vanishing from industrialized societies, raising health concerns.