How The Microbiome Make Us “Supra Human”

The new study reveals that, relative to the glacial pace of our genome’s evolution and adaptability to ever-changing environmental and dietary conditions, epigenetic factors and modulators, which include the 100 trillion microbes in our gut and their 4.2 million genes, enable us to rapidly adapt, change, and extend our genetic capabilities, conferring significant advantages to our species for both survival and collective well-being. In theory, these microbiome-mediated epigenetic capabilities enabled humans to radically alter their physiological capabilities, e.g. produce unique enzymes not found in our genome; changes which occurred, in what amounts in biological terms to “real time,” relative to the geologic time scale within which the genome of our species evolved.

Another concrete example of this is the discovery of a wide range of bacteria in the gut of Westerners capable of degrading the thousands of hard, if not impossible to digest proteins in modern wheat (there are over 23,000 distinct proteins in the modern wheat proteome). Indeed, without the help of these gluten peptide-degrading microbes, the sudden Neolithic introduction of gluten-containing grains into the human diet may have had even more catastrophic health consequences than I already documented in my essay series, “The Dark Side of Wheat.”

Cooperative Evolution

Obviously, the implications of microbiome-mediated enhanced digestion are profound. Whereas it takes millions of years to evolve functional genes that remain coded in the primary DNA sequence of the genome, epigenetic inheritance systems, such as that represented by the human gut microbiome, may take only a fraction of the time to adjust to a radically changing environmental/dietary milieu. This “real time” versus “eonic time” adaptability confers a profound evolutionary survival advantage.

The implications go even deeper as far as our dependency on microbial genetic capabilities. There are deep-seated “mutations,” or SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) in our genome, some of which do things like limit the production of the active form of folate, known as 5-methylenetetrahydrafolate. Presumably, these defects can have a multifocal effects that is associated with a wide range of health problems related to 5-methylenetetrahydratefolate deficiency. There is, however, a well known strain of Lactobacillus helviticus found in fermented dairy products that produce the missing folate metabolite for us in our gut. Examples like this show that the microbiome can fill genetic lacunae within our bodies, literally plugging holes with “epigenetic glue” in what would be the sinking ship of our glacial like adaptability of the human genome.

Moreover, Stephanie Seneff and I located truly remarkable research last year showing that there is a human strain of bacteria in the microbiome capable of synthesizing vitamin C, essentially challenging the prevailing view that humans are incapable of producing vitamin C. Also last year, a chlorophyll metabolite found in the gut known as pyropheophorbide-a was found to “super charge” our mitochondria in producing ATP (without the concomitant increase in reactive oxygen species), essentially disproving the long-held assumption that humans can not directly harvest sunlight and convert it into metabolic energy like plants; it turns out we can! So many apple carts are being overturned, thanks to our growing awareness of the seeming miraculous capabilities of the microbiome and its metabolites.

Tending to our microbial selves

Clearly, if this is true, creating conditions that protect and nourish the microbiome, is as important as the effort we make to prevent insults to DNA in our bodies, i.e. reducing exposure to genotoxic chemicals and radiation. As important as oxygen, nutriment, sunlight, is living food, grown in healthy soil, and prepared with cultural practices (recipes: literally a French word meaning “medical prescriptions”) passed down for generations! The way we are born into the world, vaginally or by C-section, whether or not the mother has been exposed to antibiotics, before conception, during, and even after when breastfeeding – these factors become extremely important as far as establishing the microbially-dependent infrastructure and superstructure of our health.

Again, I believe the Nature study indicates that the seemingly “supra human” genetic capabilities of our gut microbiome may have been the primary determinant in our species’ survivability to this present day because they allowed our species to adapt quickly to changing environmental and dietary niches. Undoubtedly, the ability to produce marine vegetation specific polysaccharide-digesting enzymes is only the tip of the iceberg as far as how the microbiome’s genetic-extension capabilities.

This notion that (microbiome-mediated) adaptability and not simply natural selection of primary DNA sequences was essential to our survival as a species is perhaps echoed in the theory of evolution’s original architect Charles Darwin, to which the following quote was attributed:

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one most adaptable to change.”

Increasingly, research on the microbiome and its ability to extend our genetic/epigenetic capabilities giving us “supra human” powers, such as profoundly enhanced digestion, assimilation, immunity, synthesis of vitamins, is accumulating in the biomedical literature.

The human genome, after all, contains approximately 23,000 protein-coding genes, while the human microbiome contributes about 42,000,000 such genes. And this, of course, is still using the outdated metric of comparing the number of protein-coding genes to protein-conding genes; the vast swaths of information-containing nucleotides, such as non-coding RNA molecules, and transposable genetic elements, contributed by the trillions of bacteria, viruses, together exert far more influence via epigenetic mechanisms than the primary sequences in our DNA.

The point, of course, is to humble ourselves to the realization that we are more “germ” than “human” as far as both the number, and genetic capabilities, of these microbes. To learn more about the Copernican-type paradigm shift inaugurated by the discovery of the microbiome’s central role in both our species self-definition and health and well-being, read my recent article on the topic, “How The Microbiome Destroyed the Ego, Vaccine Policy, and Patriarchy.”

[1] http://www.nature.com.ezproxy.med.nyu.edu/nrmicro/journal/v11/n7/full/nrmicro3050.html?WT.ec_id=NRMICRO-201307

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