sunil-nepali / pexelsMicrobiomes shared through social contactsunil-nepali / pexels
Another good reason to be careful who you talk to face to face: social contact creates an environment through which the microbiome—the set of microorganisms that inhabit the skin, hair, mouth, or intestines—can be shared and transferred between people. Microbial sharing through contact—when greeting a person or kissing someone on the cheek, for example—occurs in many types of relationships, including nondomestic connections, according to a team from the USA that sequenced the microbiome of 1,787 adults in 18 isolated communities in Honduras. People connected by multiple social relationships shared more microbial varieties than people who were not connected. The similarity is greater between people who live in the same house or are spouses, and between mothers and children. When measurements were retaken two years later, the diversity of each person’s microbiome had increased due to the frequency of interactions and physical proximity. People who did not share strains at the beginning of the study did not show evidence of increased exchanges, indicating that they remained isolated (Nature, November 20; American Council on Science and Health, December 6).
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