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An African origin for the intimate association between humans and Helicobacter pylori

Linz, Bodo ; Balloux, Francois ; Moodley, Yoshan ; Manica, Andrea ; Liu, Hua ; Roumagnac, Philippe ; Falush, Daniel ; Stamer, Christiana ; Prugnolle, Franck and van der Merwe, Schalk W. , et al. (2007) In Nature 445(7130). p.915-918
Abstract
Infection of the stomach by Helicobacter pylori is ubiquitous among humans. However, although H. pylori strains from different geographic areas are associated with clear phylogeographic differentiation(1-4), the age of an association between these bacteria with humans remains highly controversial(5,6). Here we show, using sequences from a large data set of bacterial strains that, as in humans, genetic diversity in H. pylori decreases with geographic distance from east Africa, the cradle of modern humans. We also observe similar clines of genetic isolation by distance (IBD) for both H. pylori and its human host at a worldwide scale. Like humans, simulations indicate that H. pylori seems to have spread from east Africa around 58,000 yr ago.... (More)
Infection of the stomach by Helicobacter pylori is ubiquitous among humans. However, although H. pylori strains from different geographic areas are associated with clear phylogeographic differentiation(1-4), the age of an association between these bacteria with humans remains highly controversial(5,6). Here we show, using sequences from a large data set of bacterial strains that, as in humans, genetic diversity in H. pylori decreases with geographic distance from east Africa, the cradle of modern humans. We also observe similar clines of genetic isolation by distance (IBD) for both H. pylori and its human host at a worldwide scale. Like humans, simulations indicate that H. pylori seems to have spread from east Africa around 58,000 yr ago. Even at more restricted geographic scales, where IBD tends to become blurred, principal component clines in H. pylori from Europe strongly resemble the classical clines for Europeans described by Cavalli-Sforza and colleagues(7). Taken together, our results establish that anatomically modern humans were already infected by H. pylori before their migrations from Africa and demonstrate that H. pylori has remained intimately associated with their human host populations ever since. (Less)
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Nature
volume
445
issue
7130
pages
915 - 918
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • wos:000244341200049
  • scopus:33847201150
ISSN
0028-0836
DOI
10.1038/nature05562
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
eb73cb39-4026-4d85-84ef-bb2fab29c80c (old id 675019)
alternative location
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1847463&rendertype=abstract
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 11:48:08
date last changed
2022-04-28 20:17:14
@article{eb73cb39-4026-4d85-84ef-bb2fab29c80c,
  abstract     = {{Infection of the stomach by Helicobacter pylori is ubiquitous among humans. However, although H. pylori strains from different geographic areas are associated with clear phylogeographic differentiation(1-4), the age of an association between these bacteria with humans remains highly controversial(5,6). Here we show, using sequences from a large data set of bacterial strains that, as in humans, genetic diversity in H. pylori decreases with geographic distance from east Africa, the cradle of modern humans. We also observe similar clines of genetic isolation by distance (IBD) for both H. pylori and its human host at a worldwide scale. Like humans, simulations indicate that H. pylori seems to have spread from east Africa around 58,000 yr ago. Even at more restricted geographic scales, where IBD tends to become blurred, principal component clines in H. pylori from Europe strongly resemble the classical clines for Europeans described by Cavalli-Sforza and colleagues(7). Taken together, our results establish that anatomically modern humans were already infected by H. pylori before their migrations from Africa and demonstrate that H. pylori has remained intimately associated with their human host populations ever since.}},
  author       = {{Linz, Bodo and Balloux, Francois and Moodley, Yoshan and Manica, Andrea and Liu, Hua and Roumagnac, Philippe and Falush, Daniel and Stamer, Christiana and Prugnolle, Franck and van der Merwe, Schalk W. and Yamaoka, Yoshio and Graham, David Y. and Perez-Trallero, Emilio and Wadström, Torkel and Suerbaum, Sebastian and Achtman, Mark}},
  issn         = {{0028-0836}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{7130}},
  pages        = {{915--918}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Nature}},
  title        = {{An African origin for the intimate association between humans and Helicobacter pylori}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature05562}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/nature05562}},
  volume       = {{445}},
  year         = {{2007}},
}