Neanderthals gut microbiota already contained some beneficial microorganisms that are also found in our own gut, suggesting the results of a new study.
An international research group led by the University of Bologna achieved this result by extracting and analyzing ancient DNA from 50,000-year-old faecal sediments sampled at the El Salt archaeological site, near Alicante. (in Spain).
Published in Communication Biology, their paper advances the hypothesis that ancestral components of human microbiota have inhabited the human gastrointestinal tract since that time before they separated. between the Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals that occurred more than 700,000 years ago.
“These results allow us to understand what parts of the human gut microbiota are essential for our health, as they are also essential features of our biology from an evolutionary perspective” explained Marco Candela, professor Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology of the University of Bologna, which coordinated the study. “Today there is a progressive reduction of our microbiota diversity due to the context of our lives today: the decisions of the organization may this research guides us in designing solutions suitable for diet and lifestyle to counteract this phenomenon ”.
The ‘modern’ microbiota issue
The gut microbiota is the collection of trillions of symbiont microorganisms that reside in our gastrointestinal tract. It represents an essential part of our biology and performs important functions in our bodies, such as regulating our metabolism and the immune system and protecting us from pathogenic microorganisms.
Recent studies have shown how some novel features – such as consumption of processed foods, drug use, life in hyper-healthy environments – lead to a drastic reduction of biodiversity in the gut microbiota. This decline is largely due to the loss of a set of microorganisms called “old friends”.
“The process of spilling the gut microbiota into today’s urban populations could be a real awakening,” says Simone Rampelli, a researcher at the University of Bologna and the first author of the study. “This degrading process would become particularly daunting if it involved the loss of those microbiota components that are vital to our physiology.”
Of course, there are some scary signs. For example, in the West, we are seeing a significant increase in cases of chronic inflammatory diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and colorectal cancer.
How the ‘ancient’ microbiota can help
How can we identify the parts of the gut microbiota that are more important for our health? And how can we protect them with targeted solutions? This was the starting point behind the idea of recognizing the ancestral traces of our microbiota – i.e. the heart of the human gut microbiota, which has been stable throughout our evolutionary history. Today’s technology allows it to rise successfully in this challenge thanks to a new scientific field, paleomicrobiology, which studies ancient microorganisms from archaeological remains through the application of DNA .
The research group analyzed ancient DNA samples collected in El Salt (Spain), the site of many Neanderthals. To be more precise, they analyzed the old DNA extracted from 50,000-year-old sediment faeces (the oldest sample of faecal material available to date). In this way, they were able to combine the composition of microorganisms in the intestines of Neanderthals. Comparing the Neanderthals microbiota concordance with ours, many of the similarities arose.
“Through the study of ancient DNA, we were able to separate the heart of microorganisms from modern Homo sapiens,” explained Silvia Turroni, a researcher at the University of Bologna and the first author of the study. “This discovery allows us to say that these ancient microorganisms lived in the intestines of our species before they split between Sapiens and Neanderthals, which occurred about 700,000 years ago”.
Protects the microbiota
These ancestral components of the human gut microbiota contain many well-known bacteria (including Blautia, Dorea, Roseburia, Ruminococcus and Faecalibacterium) that are fundamental to our health. In fact, by removing short-chain fatty acids from dietary fiber, these bacteria regulate our metabolic and immune balance. There is also the Bifidobacterium: a microorganism that plays a key role in regulating our immune system, especially in early childhood. Finally, in the Neanderthal gut microbiota, researchers identified some of these “old friends”. This confirms the researchers ’views on the ancestral nature of these components and their recent decline in human gut microbiota as a result of the context of modern life.
“In the current renewal scenario, which is experiencing a progressive reduction in microbiota diversity, this information could guide integrated diet and lifestyle strategies to control the microbiota. measures that are fundamental to protecting our health “, concludes Candela.” To this end, promoting sustainable lifestyles for our gut microbiota is extremely important, as it will help maintain up the arrangements that are similar to our biology “.
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This story was published from a wire group group with no text changes.
