{"id":3122,"date":"2026-10-08T13:01:41","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T11:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/?p=3122"},"modified":"2026-10-08T13:01:41","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T11:01:41","slug":"gut-microbes-that-trace-ancient-human-journeys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/index.php\/2026\/10\/08\/gut-microbes-that-trace-ancient-human-journeys\/","title":{"rendered":"Gut microbes that trace ancient human journeys"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The newest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-026-02969-5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">piece in Nature&#8217;s News &amp; Views<\/a>, co-authored by our PI, Carina Schlebusch and Maja Vukovikj from Human Evolution Program at Uppsala University discusses the study by Carter et al. exploring what our gut microbiomes can tell us about human population history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-002ffff5 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:20%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"480\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Carina-22825.jpg\" alt=\"Carina Schlebusch\" class=\"wp-image-337\" style=\"aspect-ratio:9\/16;object-fit:cover\" srcset=\"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Carina-22825.jpg 480w, https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Carina-22825-240x300.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><sup>Carina Schlebusch<\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:20%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"534\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Maja-Vukovikj-s-1643581526830.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3125\" style=\"aspect-ratio:9\/16;object-fit:cover\" srcset=\"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Maja-Vukovikj-s-1643581526830.jpg 534w, https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Maja-Vukovikj-s-1643581526830-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 534px) 100vw, 534px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><sup>Maja Vukovikj<\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Humans have never travelled alone. When our ancestors spread out of Africa and across the other continents, they carried their microorganisms with them. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-026-11106-1\">Writing in <em>Nature<\/em><\/a>, Carter <em>et al<\/em>.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-026-02969-5#ref-CR1\">1<\/a><\/sup> compare the community of gut microbes (also known as the microbiota) from the Indigenous Hadza people of Tanzania with that of the Tsimane of Bolivia, whose populations diverged during human migrations that occurred tens of thousands of years ago. The authors report that, despite these dispersals, hundreds of microbial species are present in both groups. Furthermore, genetic differences between strains of the same microbial species in Hadza and Tsimane populations were broadly consistent with the timescale of prehistoric human migrations. Many of these shared microbes are now rare or missing in populations from industrialized regions.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2206\" height=\"765\" src=\"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3124\" srcset=\"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-1.png 2206w, https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-1-300x104.png 300w, https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-1-767x266.png 767w, https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-1-1024x355.png 1024w, https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-1-1536x533.png 1536w, https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-1-2048x710.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2206px) 100vw, 2206px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-style-shadow has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-d3539768 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--small);padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--x-small);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--x-small);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--x-small);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--x-small)\">\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Relevant reading:<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Carter, M.M., Liu, Z., Olm, M.R. <em>et al.<\/em> Prehistoric global migration of vanishing gut microbes with humans. <em>Nature<\/em> (2026). <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41586-026-11106-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41586-026-11106-1<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The newest piece in Nature&#8217;s News &amp; Views, co-authored by our PI, Carina Schlebusch and Maja Vukovikj from Human Evolution Program at Uppsala University discusses the study by Carter et [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3124,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,60,61],"tags":[292,295,290,143,291,293,294],"class_list":["post-3122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","category-publications","category-research","tag-hadza","tag-human-migrations","tag-microbes","tag-nature","tag-news-views","tag-tanzania","tag-tsimane-of-bolivia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3126,"href":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3122\/revisions\/3126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centerforthehumanpast.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}