“Nori is, by far, the most likely source of bacteria with porphyran-digesting genes. It’s the only food that humans eat that contains any porphyrans and until recently, Japanese chefs didn’t cook nori before eating it. Any bacteria that lingered on the green fronds weren’t killed before they could mingle with gut bacteria like B.plebius. Ruth Ley, who works on microbiomes, says, “People have been saying that gut microbes can pick up genes from environmental microbes but it’s never been demonstrated as beautifully as in this paper.””
Japanese gut bacteria picking up genes from marine bacteria that live on seaweed. This blew my mind, but I am not surprised. We do know that there can be rapid gene changes in humans (ADH, lactase), why shouldn’t there be rapid changes in our fellow microbiomes? Very interesting implications with respect to therapy and diets.
