High-Altitude Extreme Environments Drive Convergent Evolution of Skin Microbiota in Humans and Horses
Yuwei Zhang, Manyu Zhang, Zhengge Zhao, Yunjuan Peng, Feilong Deng, Hui Jiang, Meimei Zhang, Bo Song, Jae Kyeom Kim, Jeong Hoon Pan, Jianmin Chai, Ying Li · 2025
Read High-Altitude Extreme Environments Drive Convergent Evolution of Skin Microbiota in Humans and Horses by Yuwei Zhang, Manyu Zhang, Zhengge Zhao, Yunjuan Peng, Feilong Deng, Hui Jiang, Meimei Zhang, Bo Song, Jae Kyeom Kim, Jeong Hoon Pan, Jianmin Chai, Ying Li (2025) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-12843950.txt.
Description
Yuwei Zhang and a large team of co-authors published this microbiology study in 2025. It compares the skin microbes of humans and horses living at high altitude on the Tibetan plateau with those at low altitude. High places bring harsh sun and thin air, and the team asked whether such an environment pushes different mammals toward similar skin communities. They read the full length of a standard bacterial gene to map the microbes.
Skin communities differed clearly between altitudes in both species. Five bacterial groups were enriched on the skin of both humans and horses at high altitude, and several are known hardy types that tolerate extreme conditions. Other microbes stayed species-specific at both heights. Network analysis showed the high-altitude microbes rising and falling together. The authors read the pattern as convergent evolution driven by the environment.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Yuwei Zhang, Manyu Zhang, Zhengge Zhao, Yunjuan Peng, Feilong Deng, Hui Jiang, Meimei Zhang, Bo Song, Jae Kyeom Kim, Jeong Hoon Pan, Jianmin Chai, Ying Li |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2025 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 32 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |