Unveiling Dietary Habits through DNA Barcoding

Researchers have developed a technique using DNA barcoding to identify the plant matter in human feces, allowing for the detection of what foods were consumed and the relative amounts. The genetic marker, called trnL-P6, can indicate dietary diversity, age, and household income. The technique has potential applications in clinical trials, nutrition studies, and understanding health and lifestyle patterns. The researchers are working on expanding the database to include more plant species and plan to apply the method to studies of disease and food biodiversity.