On 2014 Apr 05, Jonathan Eisen commented:

I believe some of the claims in this paper regarding the connection between ethnicity and the microbiome and the mechanisms behind such connections are not justified.

For example, in the discussion the authors write "Our data demonstrates that ethnicity exerts a selection pressure on the oral microbiome, and that this selection pressure is genetic rather than environmental, since the two ethnicities that shared a common food, nutritional and lifestyle heritage (Caucasians and African Americans) demonstrated significant microbial divergence. "

I see no evidence presented here of ANY genetic component to the microbiome differences reported here.

I and others have written blog posts critiquing this paper and the claims (such as the one mentioned above) by the authors in press releases associated with the paper. For more detail see

http://phylogenomics.blogspot.com/2013/11/short-post-bad-taste-in-my-mouth-for.html

and

http://phylogenomics.blogspot.com/2014/03/guest-post-by-jay-kaufman-bad-taste.html

On 2014 Apr 05, Jonathan Eisen commented:

I believe some of the claims in this paper regarding the connection between ethnicity and the microbiome and the mechanisms behind such connections are not justified.

For example, in the discussion the authors write "Our data demonstrates that ethnicity exerts a selection pressure on the oral microbiome, and that this selection pressure is genetic rather than environmental, since the two ethnicities that shared a common food, nutritional and lifestyle heritage (Caucasians and African Americans) demonstrated significant microbial divergence. "

I see no evidence presented here of ANY genetic component to the microbiome differences reported here.

I and others have written blog posts critiquing this paper and the claims (such as the one mentioned above) by the authors in press releases associated with the paper. For more detail see

http://phylogenomics.blogspot.com/2013/11/short-post-bad-taste-in-my-mouth-for.html

and

http://phylogenomics.blogspot.com/2014/03/guest-post-by-jay-kaufman-bad-taste.html