Human health is greatly influenced by the gut microbiota and microbiota imbalance can lead to the development of diseases. It is widely acknowledged that the interaction of bacteria within competitive ecosystems is influenced by their specialized metabolites, which act, e.g., as antibacterials or siderophores. However, our understanding of the occurrence and impact of such natural products in the human gut microbiome remains very limited. As arylthiazole siderophores are an emerging family of growth-promoting molecules in pathogenic bacteria, we analyzed a metagenomic data set from the human microbiome and thereby identified the