Agta hunter-gatherer oral microbiomes are shaped by contact network structure

Abstract

Here we investigate the effects of extensive sociality and mobility on the oral microbiome of 138 Agta hunter-gatherers from the Philippines. Our comparisons of microbiome composition showed that the Agta are more similar to Central African Bayaka hunter-gatherers than to neighbouring farmers. We also defined the Agta social microbiome as a set of 137 oral bacteria (only 7% of 1980 amplicon sequence variants) significantly influenced by social contact (quantified through wireless sensors of short-range interactions). We show that large interaction networks including strong links between close kin, spouses, and even unrelated friends, can significantly predict bacterial transmission networks across Agta camps. Finally, we show that more central individuals to social networks are also bacterial supersharers. We conclude that hunter-gatherer social microbiomes are predominantly pathogenic and were shaped by evolutionary tradeoffs between extensive sociality and disease spread.<strong> </strong>

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Affiliated Institutions

• University of Palermo IT
• Institut de Biologia Evolutiva ES
• Barcelona School of Economics ES
• Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red ES
• University of Zurich CH
• Fundación para el Fomento de la Investigación Sanitaria y Biomédica de la Comunitat Valenciana ES
• University of Cambridge GB
• University College London GB
• Queen Mary University of London GB
• University of Geneva CH
• Kobe University JP
• Universidad de Zaragoza ES
• Complexity Science Hub Vienna AT
• Lyceum of the Philippines University PH
• Universitat Pompeu Fabra ES
• Central European University AT

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