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These findings show, the scientists say, that food and the way we prepare it has the potential to influence the microbial environment (or the flora) in our guts.

A traditional Japanese diet could transfer the genes of "sushi-specific" digestive enzymes into the human ngut.

This is according to researchers who discovered a substance in marine bacteria that breaks seaweed down into digestible pieces.

They say that by eating sushi wrapped in the seaweed, people probably ingested these bacteria along with the genes coding for that digestive enzyme.

A traditional Japanese diet could transfer the genes of "sushi-specific" digestive enzymes into the human ngut.

Professor Justin Sonnenburg, a microbiologist from Stanford University in California, US, wrote an article to accompany the team's Nature paper.

A traditional Japanese diet could transfer the genes of "sushi-specific" digestive enzymes into the human ngut.

The team, led by Jan-Hendrik Hehemann from Universite Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) in Paris, France, was studying red algae known asPorphyra.

She explained that the gene for the porphyranase enzyme turned up in a database of all of the genes - the entire genome - of all of the bacteria living in each of these individuals' guts.

These enzymes digest or break down the tough walls that encapsulate each algal cell - allowing the bacteria to feed.

Dr Czjzek said these seaweed-digesting genes could be beneficial - allowing their human hosts to extract nutrition from plant material they otherwise would not be able to digest.

She and her colleagues searched through hundreds of databases of genes - looking for where else this unusual new enzyme might occur.They finally "stumbled upon" their enzyme in the gut bacteria of a group of 13 Japanese people.

"So the next time you take a bite of an unfamiliar food, think about the microbial inhabitants you may also be ingesting, ad the possibility that you will be providing one of your ten trillion closest friends with a new set of [digestive] utensils."

And when traditionally prepared, the seaweed is consumed raw.

The scientists published their findings in the journal Nature.

Dr Czjzek said these seaweed-digesting genes could be beneficial - allowing their human hosts to extract nutrition from plant material they otherwise would not be able to digest.

This is according to researchers who discovered a substance in marine bacteria that breaks seaweed down into digestible pieces.

"So the next time you take a bite of an unfamiliar food, think about the microbial inhabitants you may also be ingesting, ad the possibility that you will be providing one of your ten trillion closest friends with a new set of [digestive] utensils."