Gut microbiota composition of India’s Baiga tribe: Insights from an indigenous particularly vulnerable tribal group

The transition from traditional foraging lifestyles to modernized urban environments is associated with reduced human gut microbiome diversity. To examine this shift within the Indian subcontinent, we used shotgun metagenomics to compare the gut microbiota of 50 adults: 25 from the indigenous, foraging, and particularly vulnerable Baiga tribe and 25 from an urban population in Bhopal, Central India. The Baiga maintained a diverse ecosystem enriched with fiber-degrading bacteria such as Roseburia and Faecalibacterium , forming networks suited to complex carbohydrate fermentation. The urban microbiome showed lower phylogenetic diversity and evenness, with higher relative abundance of Prevotella copri and dairy-adapted taxa. Functionally, the tribal gut retained pathways for environmental sensing and complex plant metabolism, whereas the urban gut was enriched in pathways associated with potential inflammation. These findings identify the Baiga as a reservoir of preserved human microbial diversity relevant to metabolic health.