Positive feedback:
- Overall, there was general enthusiasm for the 'One-Health' perspective of this paper. Many studies have explored the contribution of human genetics and diet to the community structure of the microbiome, but far fewer as asked how taxa observed in the natural environment might relate to those observed in the gut microbiome.
- The paper was well written, with few typographical/grammatical errors.
- The authors showed that many of the ASVs observed in the VANISH OTUs were also found in stool of animals hunted by the Hadza, in local fresh groundwater and in bee hives harvested for honey. These ASVs are largely missing (or underrepresented) in stool samples from industrialized cultures (e.g. HMP dataset). Is this because these ASVs are simply not in present in our environment (due to differences in climate, use of herbicides, pollution, etc), or are they indeed readily observed industrialized environment (natural or 'built') but our daily lifestyle involves reduced exposure to this environment which means we don't pick them up on our hands, etc. This seems like an important question and one that could be initially investigated by examining public data collected from urban built-environment, soil and/or water. If abundant in natural environments of industrialized cultures, do microbiome datasets from the Amish/Mennonite communities show these ASVs?
- The use of StrainTracker to address a possible contamination issue was....
- What ideas for further research are based on the preprint? [Note: this encourages preprint authors for their early sharing and promotes openness among reviewers as well.]