Could my gut microbes change my blood type?
Exploring Flavonifractor plautii, the gut bacterium whose enzymes can convert Type A blood to Type O, with personal microbiome data.
A University of British Columbia team led by Stephen Withers were able to convert Type A blood to Type O using enzymes from a gut bacterium called Flavonifractor plautii.
I’m Type A … I wonder if I have any of that microbe in my gut?
The answer is yes:
(Those numbers are parts per million).
This microbe seems pretty common in most of the samples people have sent me, with perhaps a bit more variation among people with some type of gut problem compared to those who are healthy.
I realize how much I expose myself as an amateur for even asking this question, since it’s hard to imagine any biological basis for how a gut microbe could relate to person’s blood type, but wouldn’t it be cool to go back to these people and see if there’s a relationship between blood type and presence/absence/abundance of this microbe?
