Gut Microbiome Affected by Genetics More Than Once Thought

In a new study, 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. The study moves away from the idea that genes play very little role in the microbiome to the idea that genes play a pervasive, if small, role.