Bacteria in our intestines have 15 million years – Begeek.fr

The study showed that our intestines welcomed some strains of bacteria , which have more than 15 million years of existence. No need to be good at history, to understand that it means well before the appearance of man. This is what is interesting about this study because genetic analyzes have been able to demonstrate that certain bacteria that inhabit our intestines were already present in the intestines of apes which we descend.

Andrew Moeller, a researchers at the University of California, Berkeley who is co-author of the study, explained: “ (…) Some human intestinal bacteria directly descended from those who lived in the bowels of our common ancestors with monkeys “adding:” This proves that there is an unbroken lineage of these bacteria for millions of years, since the emergence of African monkeys “

This surprising conclusion was drawn by analyzing the intestinal flora of wild monkeys living in Africa and people residing in the United States. The study also revealed genetic changes in bacteria in the gut when the ape-like branches are separate. Thus, there are 15.6 million years the line of gorillas diverged from hominids. A second sharp division took place there 5.3 million years, when the human branch split from the bonobo monkeys and chimpanzees.

The study of intestinal flora particularly important as more and more specialists and researchers believe that bacteria could play a much larger role than we might think about our health, our immune system and even our mood.