Subsistence strategies in traditional societies distinguish gut microbiomes.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Obregon-Tito AJ
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4386023 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:The human gut microbiome is an important component that defines host health. Childhood is a particularly important period for the establishment and development of gut microbiota (GM). We sequenced the 16S rRNA gene from fecal samples of children between 5 and 10 years old, in two Mexican communities with contrasting lifestyles, i.e., "Westernized" (México City, n = 13) and "non-Westernized" (Me'phaa indigenous group, n = 29), in order to characterize and compare their GM. The main differences between these two communities were in bacteria associated with different types of diets (high animal protein and refined sugars vs. high fiber food, respectively). In addition, the GM of Me'phaa children showed higher total diversity and the presence of exclusive phyla, such as Deinococcus-Thermus, Chloroflexi, Elusimicrobia, Acidobacteria, and Fibrobacteres. In contrast, the children from México City showed less diversity and the presence of Saccharibacteria phylum, which was associated with the degradation of sugar compounds and was not present in the samples from Me'phaa children. This comparison provided further knowledge of the selective pressures affecting microbial ecosystemic composition over the course of human evolution and the potential consequences of pathophysiological states correlated with Westernization lifestyles.
| S-EPMC7602701 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Social learning is a fundamental element of human cognition. Learning from others facilitates the transmission of information that helps individuals and groups rapidly adjust to new environments and underlies adaptive cultural evolution1-6. While basic human propensities for social learning are traditionally assumed to be species-universal1,7, recent empirical studies show that they vary between individuals and populations8-13. Yet the causes of this variation remain poorly understood9. Here we show that interdependence in everyday social and economic activities can strongly amplify social learning. With an experimental decision-making task we examine individual versus social learning in three recently diverged populations of a single-ethnic group, whose subsistence styles require varying degrees of interdependence. Interdependent pastoralists and urban dwellers have markedly higher propensities for social learning than independent horticulturalists, who predominantly rely on individual payoff information. These results indicate that everyday social and economic practices can mould human social learning strategies and they highlight the flexibility of human cognition to change with local ecology. Our study further suggests that shifts in subsistence styles - which can occur when humans inhabit new habitats or cultural niches2 - can alter reliance on social learning and may therefore impact the ability of human societies to adapt to novel circumstances.
| S-EPMC5444520 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Most accounts of human life history propose that women have short reproductive spans relative to their adult lifespans, while men not only remain fertile but carry on reproducing until late life. Here we argue that studies have overlooked evidence for variation in male reproductive ageing across human populations. We apply a Bayesian approach to census data from Agta hunter-gatherers and Gambian farmers to show that long post-reproductive lifespans characterise not only women but also males in some traditional human populations. We calculate three indices of reproductive ageing in men (oldest age at reproduction, male late-life reproduction, and post-reproductive representation) and identify a continuum of male reproductive longevity across eight traditional societies ranging from !Kung, Hadza and Agta hunter-gatherers exhibiting low levels of polygyny, early age at last reproduction and long post-reproductive lifespans, to male Gambian agriculturalists and Turkana pastoralists showing higher levels of polygyny, late-life reproduction and shorter post-reproductive lifespans. We conclude that the uniquely human detachment between rates of somatic senescence and reproductive decline, and the existence of post-reproductive lifespans, are features of both male and female life histories, and therefore not exclusive consequences of menopause.
| S-EPMC4236073 | biostudies-literature
Project description:In both high- and low-income countries, HIV-negative children born to HIV-positive mothers (HIV exposed, uninfected [HEU]) are more susceptible to severe infection than HIV-unexposed, uninfected (HUU) children, with altered innate immunity hypothesized to be a cause. Both the gut microbiome and systemic innate immunity differ across biogeographically distinct settings, and the two are known to influence each other. And although the gut microbiome is influenced by HIV infection and may contribute to altered immunity, the biogeography of immune-microbiome correlations among HEU children have not been investigated. To address this, we compared the innate response and the stool microbiome of 2-y-old HEU and HUU children from Belgium, Canada, and South Africa to test the hypothesis that region-specific immune alterations directly correlate to differences in their stool microbiomes. We did not detect a universal immune or microbiome signature underlying differences between HEU versus HUU that was applicable to all children. But as hypothesized, population-specific differences in stool microbiomes were readily detected and included reduced abundances of short-chain fatty acid-producing bacteria in Canadian HEU children. Furthermore, we did not identify innate immune-microbiome associations that distinguished HEU from HUU children in any population. These findings suggest that maternal HIV infection is independently associated with differences in both innate immunity and the stool microbiome in a biogeographical population-specific way.
| S-EPMC7653510 | biostudies-literature
Project description:We have previously demonstrated that the gut microbiota can play a role in the pathogenesis of conditions associated with exposure to environmental pollutants. It is well accepted that diets high in fermentable fibers such as inulin can beneficially modulate the gut microbiota and lessen the severity of pro-inflammatory diseases. Therefore, we aimed to test the hypothesis that hyperlipidemic mice fed a diet enriched with inulin would be protected from the pro-inflammatory toxic effects of PCB 126.
2020-02-27 | E-MTAB-8798 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:The etiology of dental caries remains elusive because of our limited understanding of the complex oral microbiomes. The current methodologies have been limited by insufficient depth and breadth of microbial sampling, paucity of data for diseased hosts particularly at the population level, inconsistency of sampled sites and the inability to distinguish the underlying microbial factors. By cross-validating 16S rRNA gene amplicon-based and whole-genome-based deep-sequencing technologies, we report the most in-depth, comprehensive and collaborated view to date of the adult saliva microbiomes in pilot populations of 19 caries-active and 26 healthy human hosts. We found that: first, saliva microbiomes in human population were featured by a vast phylogenetic diversity yet a minimal organismal core; second, caries microbiomes were significantly more variable in community structure whereas the healthy ones were relatively conserved; third, abundance changes of certain taxa such as overabundance of Prevotella Genus distinguished caries microbiota from healthy ones, and furthermore, caries-active and normal individuals carried different arrays of Prevotella species; and finally, no 'caries-specific' operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were detected, yet 147 OTUs were 'caries associated', that is, differentially distributed yet present in both healthy and caries-active populations. These findings underscored the necessity of species- and strain-level resolution for caries prognosis, and were consistent with the ecological hypothesis where the shifts in community structure, instead of the presence or absence of particular groups of microbes, underlie the cariogenesis.
| S-EPMC3246229 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Social status motivates much of human behavior. However, status may have been a relatively weak target of selection for much of human evolution if ancestral foragers tended to be more egalitarian. We test the "egalitarianism hypothesis" that status has a significantly smaller effect on reproductive success (RS) in foragers compared with nonforagers. We also test between alternative male reproductive strategies, in particular whether reproductive benefits of status are due to lower offspring mortality (parental investment) or increased fertility (mating effort). We performed a phylogenetic multilevel metaanalysis of 288 statistical associations between measures of male status (physical formidability, hunting ability, material wealth, political influence) and RS (mating success, wife quality, fertility, offspring mortality, and number of surviving offspring) from 46 studies in 33 nonindustrial societies. We found a significant overall effect of status on RS (r = 0.19), though this effect was significantly lower than for nonhuman primates (r = 0.80). There was substantial variation due to marriage system and measure of RS, in particular status associated with offspring mortality only in polygynous societies (r = -0.08), and with wife quality only in monogamous societies (r = 0.15). However, the effects of status on RS did not differ significantly by status measure or subsistence type: foraging, horticulture, pastoralism, and agriculture. These results suggest that traits that facilitate status acquisition were not subject to substantially greater selection with domestication of plants and animals, and are part of reproductive strategies that enhance fertility more than offspring well-being.
| S-EPMC5047206 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Objective: The intestinal microbiome is associated with various autoimmune diseases. Regional difference is the main influencing factor of intestinal microbial difference. This study aimed to identify the differences in fecal microbiome between autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) patients and healthy controls (HCs) in Central China, and to validate the efficacy of fecal microbiome as a diagnostic tool for AIH. Design: We collected 115 fecal samples from AIH patients (N = 37) and HCs (N = 78) in Central China and performed gene sequencing. Fecal microbiomes were characterized and microbial markers for AIH were identified. Results: Fecal microbial diversity showed a downward trend in AIH compared with HCs. Fecal microbial communities significantly differed between both groups. At the phylum level, Verrucomicrobia abundance was significantly increased, while Lentisphaerae and Synergistetes were significantly decreased in the AIH patients vs. the HCs. Compared to the HCs, 15 genera, including Veillonella, Faecalibacterium, and Akkermansia, were enriched, while 19 genera, such as Pseudobutyrivibrio, Lachnospira, and Ruminococcaceae, were decreased in the AIH patients. Ten genera, including Veillonella, Faecalibacterium, and Akkermansia, predominated in the AIH patients. Five microbial biomarkers were deemed optimal diagnostic tools for AIH. The probability of disease was significantly increased in AIH group vs. HCs, achieving 83.25% value of area under the curve. Conclusion: We present the characteristics of AIH patients in Central China for the first time. Five microbial biomarkers, including Lachnospiraceae, Veillonella, Bacteroides, Roseburia, and Ruminococcaceae, achieved a high potential distinguishing AIH patients from HCs.
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Project description:Humans are exposed to numerous xenobiotics, a majority of which are in the form of pharmaceuticals. Apart from human enzymes, recent studies have indicated the role of the gut bacterial community (microbiome) in metabolizing xenobiotics. However, little is known about the contribution of the plethora of gut microbiome in xenobiotic metabolism. The present study reports the results of analyses on xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes in various human gut microbiomes. A total of 397 available gut metagenomes from individuals of varying age groups from 8 nationalities were analyzed. Based on the diversities and abundances of the xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes, various bacterial taxa were classified into three groups, namely, least versatile, intermediately versatile and highly versatile xenobiotic metabolizers. Most interestingly, specific relationships were observed between the overall drug consumption profile and the abundance and diversity of the xenobiotic metabolizing repertoire in various geographies. The obtained differential abundance patterns of xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes and bacterial genera harboring them, suggest their links to pharmacokinetic variations among individuals. Additional analyses of a few well studied classes of drug modifying enzymes (DMEs) also indicate geographic as well as age specific trends.
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Project description:In the Anthropocene, humans, domesticated animals, wildlife, and their environments are interconnected, especially as humans advance further into wildlife habitats. Wildlife gut microbiomes play a vital role in host health. Changes to wildlife gut microbiomes due to anthropogenic disturbances, such as habitat fragmentation, can disrupt natural gut microbiota homeostasis and make animals vulnerable to infections that may become zoonotic. However, it remains unclear whether the disruption to wildlife gut microbiomes is caused by habitat fragmentation per se or the combination of habitat fragmentation with additional anthropogenic disturbances, such as contact with humans, domesticated animals, invasive species, and their pathogens. Here, we show that habitat fragmentation per se does not impact the gut microbiome of a generalist rodent species native to Central America, Tome's spiny rat Proechimys semispinosus, but additional anthropogenic disturbances do. Indeed, compared to protected continuous and fragmented forest landscapes that are largely untouched by other human activities, the gut microbiomes of spiny rats inhabiting human-disturbed fragmented landscapes revealed a reduced alpha diversity and a shifted and more dispersed beta diversity. Their microbiomes contained more taxa associated with domesticated animals and their potential pathogens, suggesting a shift in potential metagenome functions. On the one hand, the compositional shift could indicate a degree of gut microbial adaption known as metagenomic plasticity. On the other hand, the greater variation in community structure and reduced alpha diversity may signal a decline in beneficial microbial functions and illustrate that gut adaption may not catch up with anthropogenic disturbances, even in a generalist species with large phenotypic plasticity, with potentially harmful consequences to both wildlife and human health.
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