International Study Reveals Higher Rates of Gene Transfer in the Industrialized Human Microbiome

International Study Reveals Higher Rates of Gene Transfer in the Industrialized Human Microbiome

The composition of the gut microbiome is altered by many factors including, but not limited to, diet, exercise, and antibiotic use. Now, the first major paper from the Global Microbiome Conservancy (GMbC), a consortium that is collecting microbiome samples from underrepresented human populations around the world in an effort to preserve bacterial species that are at risk of being lost as humanity becomes more exposed to industrialized diets and lifestyles globally, shows how industrialization has impacted the human gut ecosystem, resulting in altered microbiome composition and diversity.

The new study from an MIT-led team has revealed that the microbiome can remake themselves within the lifetime of their host by passing genes back and forth. The researchers also showed that this kind of gene transfer occurs more frequently in the microbiomes of people living in industrialized societies, possibly in response to their specific diets and lifestyles.

This work is published in Cell in the article, “Elevated rates of horizontal gene transfer in the industrialized human microbiome.”