Direct causal links have been provided between gut microbial dysbiosis and pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. To illustrate, imidazole propionate (ImP), as a microbial metabolite has been proven to be able to lead to insulin resistance via mTORC1 pathway. Of interest, our recent paper revealed that the levels of ImP in Chinese are three times higher than that in Swedish (Hua et al. 2023. EMBO Molecular Medicine) and the risks of T2D are also known to be three times higher in Chinese than Swedish. We thus hypothesized that the inter-individual differences in T2D-related gut microbial signatures might explain the distinct risks of T2D in across populations as reported by World Health Organizations. Here we will try to explore those T2D-related microbial signatures and their variations across the globe.