On the Cover: Gut microbes as your fingerprint: Cell volume 184, issue 9

On the cover: Gut microbes as your fingerprint. In this issue, Chen et al. (2302–2315) assess the long-term stability of the human gut microbiome in the Lifelines-DEEP cohort. They observe that the gut microbial genetic makeup is more stable and individual-specific than composition and can be used to fingerprint the host. Their analyses also suggest that the microbial impact on host cardiometabolic health is mediated by microbial metabolites. The cover art depicts how microbes in the large and small intestine can serve as an individual fingerprint. Image credit: Lianmin Chen (University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen).

Link to the paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2021.03.024