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Updated: Jul 5, 2025

Selective Cleaning of Wild Caenorhabditis Nematodes to Enrich for Intestinal Microbiome Bacteria
Published on: August 13, 2021
Documenting the diversity of the Namibian Ju|'hoansi intestinal microbiome
Mia Truter1, Jessica E Koopman2, Karen Jordaan2
1Center for Microbial Ecology and Genomics, Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, University of Pretoria, Hatfield 0028, South Africa; Scientific Computing Research Unit, Department of Chemistry, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7700, South Africa.
Abstract:
We investigate the bacterial and fungal composition and functionality of the Ju|'hoansi intestinal microbiome (IM). The Juǀ'hoansi are a hunter-gatherer community residing in northeastern Namibia. They formerly subsisted by hunting and gathering but have been increasingly exposed to industrial dietary sources, medicines, and lifestyle features. They present an opportunity to study the evolution of the human IM in situ, from a predominantly hunter-gatherer to an increasingly Western urban-forager-farmer lifestyle. Their bacterial IM resembles that of typical hunter-gatherers, being enriched for genera such as Prevotella, Blautia, Faecalibacterium, Succinivibrio, and Treponema. Fungal IM inhabitants include animal pathogens and plant saprotrophs such as Fusarium, Issatchenkia, and Panellus. Our results suggest that diet and culture exert a greater influence on Ju|'hoansi IM composition than age, self-identified biological sex, and medical history. The Ju|'hoansi exhibit a unique core IM composition that diverges from the core IMs of other populations.
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