New research from Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência reveals that diet can change the evolutionary path of bacteria in the gut, within host-relevant timescales. The study, published in Cell Host & Microbe, demonstrates how quickly Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron (B. theta), a prevalent bacterium in the human gut, acquires adaptive mutations in response to dietary changes. These findings show that acquisition of genetic changes can explain the observed microbiota-mediated negative effects that unbalanced diets have on host health.

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