Linking the edible plant microbiome and human gut microbiome

Abstract

The edible plant microbiome, which includes microbes in raw-eaten plants, has been recently recognized as a vehicle delivering microbes to the gut. Fruits and vegetables can carry thousands to billions of microorganisms with diverse genetic capacities on each serving. Since the ‘edible plant microbiome’ concept was introduced in 2014, notable progress has been made in understanding its microbial diversity, factors influencing it, functional traits and biomarkers, and its interconnection with the human gut microbiome. The discovery of the link between microbes in plants consumed raw and the gut microbiome establishes a possible continuum from farm to fork and health.