Cited by 11Evolution and Genetic DynamicsGut microbiota and healthGenetic diversity and population structure

Inference of the Demographic Histories and Selective Effects of Human Gut Commensal Microbiota Over the Course of Human History

Open access
Mah, Jonathan C, Lohmueller, Kirk E, Garud, Nandita R·2025·Molecular Biology and Evolution

Published version of a preprint

Abstract

Despite the importance of gut commensal microbiota to human health, there is little knowledge about their evolutionary histories, including their demographic histories and distributions of fitness effects (DFEs) of mutations. Here, we infer the demographic histories and DFEs for amino acid-changing mutations of 39 of the most prevalent and abundant commensal gut microbial species found in Westernized individuals over timescales exceeding human generations. Some species display contractions in population size and others expansions, with several of these events coinciding with several key historical moments in human history. DFEs across species vary from highly to mildly deleterious, with differences between accessory and core gene DFEs largely driven by genetic drift. Within genera, DFEs tend to be more congruent, reflective of underlying phylogenetic relationships. Together, these findings suggest that gut microbes have distinct demographic and selective histories.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1093/molbev/msaf010

Cites

90 of 90 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • The higher biodiversity observed in non-Westernized settings is consistent with more heterogeneous dietary and environmental exposures allowing a broader range of accessory gene content to persist than in industrialized populations.

    “This characteristic is consistent with the higher biodiversity observed in non-Westernized settings, where more heterogeneous dietary and environmental exposures may allow a broader range of accessory gene content to persist than is usually observed in genomes from industrialized populations [73-75] .”

    From Genome-scale insights into the metabolic landscape and evolutionary development of Bifidobacterium bifidum (2026) · cites this paper as [75]

    The Introduction (page unavailable) reports greater species-, gene-, and nucleotide-level diversity in rural African than urban Western microbiomes and identifies shifts in diet as a possible contributor. The Results (page unavailable) also find lower nucleotide diversity in North American than rural African microbiomes. The paper does not establish that heterogeneous dietary and environmental exposures allow broader accessory-gene content to persist in non-Westernized populations. (LLM, conf=0.85)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Nayfach S., Pollard K.S., 2015. Population genetic analyses of metagenomes reveal extensive strain-level variation in prevalent human-associated bacteria. bioRxiv 031757.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Mah, J. C., Lohmueller, K. E., & Garud, N. R.
Affiliations
University of California, Los Angeles (US)
Corresponding author
  • Lohmueller, Kirk E
  • Garud, Nandita R
Venue
Molecular Biology and Evolution
Published
2025-01-22
Volume
42
Issue
2
ISSN
  • 0737-4038 (ISSN-L)
  • 1537-1719
OpenAlex
W4406708630
Cited by
11
References
90
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 1
FWCI
4.09
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Molecular Biology and Evolution (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Funders
  • NIGMS NIH (T32 5T32GM008185, R35GM151023, R35GM119856, 2240098)
  • Paul Allen Research Foundation
  • UC Hellman Fellows
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic diversity and population structure
Keywords
gut microbiota, demography, genetic drift, accessory genes, core genes, historical demography

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review