An African origin for the intimate association between humans and Helicobacter pylori
Infection of the stomach by Helicobacter pylori is ubiquitous among humans. However, although H. pylori strains from different geographic areas are associated with clear phylogeographic differentiation(1-4), the age of an association between these bacteria with humans remains highly controversial(5,6). Here we show, using sequences from a large data set of bacterial strains that, as in humans, gen