Was Helicobacter causing human ulcers before modern humans existed?
As many of you are probably aware, most of the current data on human genetic diversity suggests that modern humans got our start in East Africa, and radiated outward. Not only are African populations the most genetically diverse, but for other ethnic groups, the best predictor of their genetic diversity is simply the distance from East Africa—the further you get, the less diverse the populations are. That suggests that the humans in Alaska are relative newcomers compared to the ones that live in Central Asia, a suggestion consistent with the archeological evidence. An early access paper in Nature suggests that we did not travel alone. The work indicates that Helicobacter pylori, the ulcer causing stomach bacteria, shows a disturbingly similar pattern of distribution. The researchers obtained sequences of the Helicobacter residing in over 750 individuals, representing 51 different ethnic groups. The analysis of that data also showed Helicobacter was most diverse in Africa, and grew some
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