Open AccessLocal adaptation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis on the Tibetan Plateau
Author(s) -
Qingyun Liu,
Haican Liu,
Shi Li,
Mingyu Gan,
Xiuqin Zhao,
Liang-Dong Lyu,
Howard Takiff,
Kanglin Wan,
Qian Gao
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.2017831118
Subject(s) - biology , population , mycobacterium tuberculosis , genetics , adaptation (eye) , gene , biological dispersal , local adaptation , evolutionary biology , tuberculosis , medicine , demography , pathology , neuroscience , sociology
Significance The global distribution of differentMtb lineages is very structured, with a few lineages that are globally widespread, whereas many others are restricted to particular geographic regions. Although local adaptation has been a favored model for explaining the sympatric relationship between the bacteria and host in these geographic regions, this has been difficult to study. Human migration has led to intermixing of ethnicities and has disturbed the bacterial population structure, thereby masking the putative genetic determinants that may have evolved from selection pressures in a given region. Here, by analyzing the genomes of hundreds ofMtb strains sampled from the relatively isolated population of Tibetan, we provide genetic evidence thatMtb can evolve to adapt to local populations and environments.