Our genes shape our gut bacteria, new research shows

Under the leadership of the DMC’s Jenny Tung and collaborators at Duke, the University of Minnesota, and Notre Dame, researchers discovered that most bacteria in the gut microbiome are heritable after looking at more than 16,000 gut microbiome profiles collected over 14 years from a long-studied population of baboons in Kenya’s Amboseli National Park. However, this heritability changes over time, across seasons and with age. The team also found that several of the microbiome traits heritable in baboons are also heritable in humans.Their study was published in Science on July 9.