Changes in gut bacteria helped human ancestors to survive in new geographical areas: Study

A new study has suggested that adaptive changes in the microbes inhabiting the human gut (gut microbiome) might be one of the factors responsible for human evolution, allowing our ancestors to survive in new geographic areas and spread around the world.According to the research published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, when our ancestors walked into new geographic areas, they confronted new food choices and their adaptive microbiome made it possible to digest or detoxify the foods they were eating in a local region and increased their ability to endure new diseases."In this paper, we begin to consider what the microbiomes of our ancestors might have been like and how they might have changed," says Rob Dunn of the North Carolina State University in the United States. "Such changes aren't always bad and yet medicine, diet, and much else makes more sense in light of a better understanding of the microbes that were part of the daily lives of our ancestors."These adaptive ...