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peer-reviewed-myopia t1_j5gjb78 wrote

Reply to comment by Defiant-Taro4522 in How our microbiome is shaped by family, friends, and even neighbors. Study of the gut and mouth microbiomes of thousands of people from around the world raises the possibility that diseases linked to microbiome dysfunction, including cancer, diabetes, and obesity, could be partly transmissible. by MistWeaver80

This research specifically investigated person-to-person bacterial strain transmission. Diet is considered more of a factor in the relative composition of our microbiome, not the uniqueness of the bacterial strains that it's composed of. Very few strains in our microbiome can survive for long outside the human body.

Apparently, they tried to correct for food-to-gut transmission by disregarding strains that had any genome-based similarity to what's been found in commercially available food. How effective this correction was is TBD because there's so much unknown regarding microbiome transmission.

As of now, it seems person-to-person strain transmission is distance-based within shared environments. Still, food-to-gut strain transmission could be a factor. Lots more to discover.

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