Around the world, bacterial communities live in all kinds of habitats, from the human body to water and soil. Each community consists of a unique composition of species, called the microbiome. Each species harbors thousands of genes that encode both common functions and functions specific to the habitat. Scientists around the world have started to sequence microbiomes in individual habitats to understand the functional diversity of bacteria within them. However, little is known about where these habitat-specific genes and functionalities originate, whether they can cross environments, and how easily they can spread.
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Source: Phys.org