Researchers developed AMPLiT, an AI tool that identified antimicrobial peptides from ancient human coprolite microbiomes — potentially resurrecting extinct but effective antibiotics.
AUPRC 0.9486AMPLiT AI tool achieves high accuracy in identifying AMPs from ancient metagenomic data
What the researchers found
AMPLiT identified antimicrobial peptides from ancient human coprolite metagenomes with high accuracy (AUPRC 0.9486), revealing potentially extinct but efficacious AMPs.
Why it matters
Antibiotic resistance is a global crisis. Ancient microbiomes may harbor antimicrobial peptides that evolution refined over millennia but that modern humans have lost — a completely novel source of new antibiotics.
How the study worked
Development of AMPLiT (AMP Lightweight Identification Tool) for metagenomic AMP screening; analysis of 7 ancient human coprolite metagenomes.
What this study cannot tell us
Ancient DNA is degraded and incomplete; computational predictions need experimental validation; ancient AMPs may not work against modern resistant pathogens; coprolite samples are scarce.
How to read the evidence
Computational study with tool development and ancient metagenome analysis — innovative discovery platform requiring experimental validation.
When this study was published
Published in 2026, pioneering the field of paleogenomics-based antibiotic discovery.
The bigger picture
This merges paleomicrobiology with drug discovery — using computational tools to mine the deep past for solutions to modern antibiotic resistance, essentially resurrecting molecular weapons our ancestors' microbes once wielded.
Questions still open
- Can the identified ancient AMPs be synthesized and tested against modern antibiotic-resistant bacteria?
- What caused these antimicrobial peptides to disappear from modern human microbiomes?
Common questions
How can ancient poop help fight superbugs?
What is AMPLiT?
Read the original research
Identification of antimicrobial peptides from ancient gut microbiomes.
Nature communications, 17(1), 1788
Citation
Chen, Sizhe; Yuan, Yue; Wang, Yun; Peng, Ye; Tun, Hein Min; Jiang, Zhimin; Miao, Yinglei; Lee, Sunjae; Yin, Xiaole; Shen, Xiaotao; DeLeon, Orlando; Chang, Eugene B; Chan, Francis Ka Leung; Sun, Yang; Ng, Siew Chien; Su, Qi. (2026). Identification of antimicrobial peptides from ancient gut microbiomes.. Nature communications, 17(1), 1788. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-68495-0