Exploring the Interconnected World of Microbiomes

Published: Jun 27, 2023 by FME Lab

In our contribution to the last Microbiome Support CSA review, coordinated by A. sessitch and T. Kostic¹, we reveal the critical roles of microbiomes in maintaining ecosystem health and their extensive interconnectivity across different environments. These diverse microbial communities are exchanged constantly, affecting everything from climate regulation to human health.

While some transfer events may be harmful, such as the spread of pathogens, our study highlights the significant positive impacts of microbiome exchange. Transferred microbes can introduce novel functions beneficial for ecosystem adaptation and human health.

Advanced sequencing technologies now allow us to rapidly examine these complex microbiomes and trace the transmission of individual strains. We argue for a holistic approach to fully comprehend the dynamics of microbiome transfers and their far-reaching implications.

Acknowledging this microbiome interconnectedness can lead to novel strategies for improving health and planetary wellbeing. It’s a fascinating, interconnected world out there, and microbiomes are playing an integral part. Let’s not overlook them!

Sessitsch A, Wakelin S, Schloter M, et al. Microbiome Interconnectedness throughout Environments with Major Consequences for Healthy People and a Healthy Planet. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev. 2023;e0021222. doi:10.1128/mmbr.00212-22 ↩

cFMD workshop in Trento

Last February 23-24th 2026, at University of Trento, a workshop was organized by the CIBIO (Nicola Segata’s lab) for #DominoEU partners. The workshop aimed at learning to query & analyse data from the Curated Food Microbiome Database (cFMD). Thanks to the very efficient and skilled teaching team (vitor Heidrich, Hrituraj Dey, Francesco aniscar, Sergio Andrés Castañeda Garzon) and for the incredible hospitality of Frederica Pinto and Nicola Segata.

From food spontaneous fermentations to food designed consortia

Our new article entitled “Microbiome metabolic modeling as a tool for innovation in fermented foods” has been published in in Current Opinion of Food Science¹.

Elham Karimi, Julien Tap, Marie-Christine Champomier-Vergès, Stéphane Chaillou. Microbiome metabolic modeling as a tool for innovation in fermented foods. Current Opinion of Food Science. 2025 ↩

The FME lab communicates about the links between the microbiome, nutrition and health.

On Thursday 27 November, the FME lab took part in the Food System Microbiomes Conference in Wageningen during the session dedicated to the connections between microbiomes, nutrition and health. The session was co-chaired by Stéphane Chaillou (INRAE, Micalis) and Prof. Christophe Courtin (KU Leuven), and provided an opportunity to showcase advances from two major European projects: DOMINO and HealthFerm.