Your Co-habitants May Tune Your Gut Microbiome More Than Your Diet

A study shows people who live together share about 26% of their oral microbes, with romantic partners sharing 44%, implying that household cohabitation shapes both oral and gut microbiomes beyond diet. The oral–gut microbiome axis means microbes can transfer via saliva and shared environments, potentially influencing health and the effectiveness of treatments like fecal microbiota transplantation, and microbial exchange can extend to broader communities albeit more weakly.