The history of Helicobacter pylori: from phylogeography to paleomicrobiology

The study of the gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori brought us interesting data on the history of mankind. Based on multi-locus sequence typing, it was possible to trace the migration of Homo sapiens all around the world, and to infer the time when he went Out of Africa. Beside these phylogeographic aspects, paleomicrobiology gave us important information on life in the Neolithic period, following the discovery of Ötzi, the Iceman, who was living in the Tyrolean Alps 5200 years ago, and from whom a Helicobacter pylori genome was sequenced. This review presents the data accumulated in these different fields.