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Coadaptation of Helicobacter pylori and humans: ancient history, modern implications
John C. Atherton, Martin J. Blaser
John C. Atherton, Martin J. Blaser
Published September 1, 2009
Citation Information: J Clin Invest. 2009;119(9):2475-2487. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI38605.
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Review Series

Coadaptation of Helicobacter pylori and humans: ancient history, modern implications

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Abstract

Humans have been colonized by Helicobacter pylori for at least 50,000 years and probably throughout their evolution. H. pylori has adapted to humans, colonizing children and persisting throughout life. Most strains possess factors that subtly modulate the host environment, increasing the risk of peptic ulceration, gastric adenocarcinoma, and possibly other diseases. H. pylori genes encoding these and other factors rapidly evolve through mutation and recombination, changing the bacteria-host interaction. Although immune and physiologic responses to H. pylori also contribute to pathogenesis, humans have evolved in concert with the bacterium, and its recent absence throughout the life of many individuals has led to new human physiological changes. These may have contributed to recent increases in esophageal adenocarcinoma and, more speculatively, other modern diseases.

Authors

John C. Atherton, Martin J. Blaser

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Figure 1

Phylogeography of H. pylori.

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Phylogeography of H. pylori.
   
(A) Genetic diversity. Neighbor-joining...
(A) Genetic diversity. Neighbor-joining tree (Kimura 2-parameter) of 769 concatenated sequences from H. pylori, color-coded according to population assignment by structure into the populations H. pylori Europe (hpEurope), H. pylori Asia 2 (hpAsia2), H. pylori North East Africa (hpNEAfrica), H. pylori Africa 2 (hpAfrica2), H. pylori Africa 1 (hpAfrica1), with subpopulations H. pylori West Africa (hspWAfrica) and H. pylori South Africa (hspSAfrica), and H. pylori East Asia (hpEAsia), with subpopulations H. pylori American Indian (hspAmerind), H. pylori Maori (hspMaori), and H. pylori East Asia (hspEAsia). (B–E) Parallel geographic patterns of genetic diversity in humans and H. pylori. (B and C) Genetic distance in humans (B) and H. pylori (C) between pairs of geographic populations versus geographic distance between the two populations. FST is the proportion of the total genetic variance contained in a subpopulation relative to the total genetic variance. (D and E) Average gene diversity (HS) in humans (D) and H. pylori (E) within geographic populations versus geographic distance from East Africa. r2 = 0.77 (B); r2 = 0.47 (C); r2 = 0.85 (D); and r2 = 0.59 (E). Confidence intervals are indicated by dotted lines. Reproduced with permission from Nature (5).

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