Elad Barkan

TL;DR: Genotype and microbiome data from 1,046 healthy individuals with several distinct ancestral origins who share a relatively common environment are examined, and it is demonstrated that the gut microbiome is not significantly associated with genetic ancestry, and that host genetics have a minor role in determining microbiome composition.

TL;DR: In this article, the MiBioGen consortium curated and analyzed genome-wide genotypes and 16S fecal microbiome data from 18,340 individuals (24 cohorts) and found high variability across cohorts: only 9 of 410 genera were detected in more than 95% of samples.

TL;DR: A phenome-wide association study and Mendelian randomization identified enrichment of microbiome trait loci in the metabolic, nutrition and environment domains and suggested the microbiome has causal effects in ulcerative colitis and rheumatoid arthritis.

TL;DR: This work reconsiders mGWAS by viewing them through the lens of GWAS, and demonstrates that there are striking similarities between the challenges and pitfalls faced by the two study designs.

TL;DR: There is no statistically significant association between microbiome composition and ethnicity, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), or overall genetic similarity, and that only 5 of 211 previously reported microbiome-SNP associations replicate in this cohort.