全基因组扫描在人类肠道微生物组中创建生态单位，这一成果由维也纳大学Martin F. Polz团队经过不懈努力而取得。该研究于2026年5月6日发表于国际一流学术期刊《自然》杂志上。

在这里，研究人员表明全基因组选择性扫描是一种普遍的机制，可以区分微生物组中的细菌。这种机制导致了类似于全球流行病的人口结构，跨越了不同地理和种族的人口。当一种适应允许克隆在其生态位中超越其他克隆时，这种横扫就会出现，然后是再多样化，它们表现为在系统发育树的长分支上密切相关的基因组的聚集体。这种结构是通过排除掩盖基因组克隆血统的重组事件而揭示的。

事实上，研究组表明全基因组扫描起源于25个细菌科的至少66个分类群的广泛重组率。估计的分化年龄表明，横扫线虫可以在几十年内在全球范围内传播，这一过程贯穿人类历史。扫描细胞与不同的宿主状况有关，如年龄、结直肠癌、炎症性肠病和类型2糖尿病——作为它们生态分化的指示。这些结果揭示了观察具有差异关联的稳定遗传菌株的进化机制，并为分析微生物群体间的适应性提供了理论基础。

据悉，人类肠道微生物群是由来自宿主和环境因素的多种选择力形成的，它对健康和疾病有重大影响。尽管微生物谱系与各种健康状况的关联已经在不同的分类水平上得到了证明，但统一的适应机制将微生物谱系分类为生态分化的种群的程度仍然知之甚少。

附：英文原文

Title: Genome-wide sweeps create ecological units in the human gut microbiome

Author: Yu, Xiaoqian Annie, Strachan, Cameron R., Herbold, Craig W., Lang, Michaela, Gasche, Christoph, Makristathis, Athanasios, Segata, Nicola, Pollak, Shaul, Tett, Adrian, Polz, Martin F.

Issue&Volume: 2026-05-06

Abstract: The human gut microbiome is shaped by diverse selective forces that originate from host and environmental factors and it substantially influences health and disease. Whereas the association of microbial lineages with various health conditions has been shown at different taxonomic levels1,2,3,4,5, the extent to which unifying adaptive mechanisms sort microbial lineages into ecologically differentiated populations remains poorly understood. Here we show that genome-wide selective sweeps are a pervasive mechanism that differentiates bacteria in the microbiome. This mechanism leads to population structures akin to global epidemics across geographically and ethnically diverse human populations. Such sweeps arise when an adaptation allows a clone to outcompete others in its niche followed by rediversification, and they manifest as clusters of closely related genomes on long branches in phylogenetic trees. This structure is revealed by excluding recombination events that mask the clonal descent of the genomes. Indeed, we show that genome-wide sweeps originate under a wide range of recombination rates in at least 66 taxa from 25 bacterial families. Estimated ages of divergence suggest that sweep clusters can spread globally within decades and that this process has occurred throughout human history. Sweep clusters are associated with different host conditions—such as age, colorectal cancer, inflammatory bowel diseases and type2 diabetes—as an indication of their ecological differentiation. Our results reveal an evolutionary mechanism for the observation of stably inherited strains with differential associations and provide a theoretical foundation for analysing adaptation among microbial populations.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10476-w

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10476-w