But Kozyrskyj says she plans to connect these changes to childhood conditions to find any possible associations between certain microbial communities and conditions such as allergy or asthma.

CNN: Connection between dirty diapers, childhood health

Without outside influences, microbial communities in these environments can continue to evolve in isolation - developing novel solutions to the problems that plague their soil counterparts, such as competition and the desire to fight for resources.

BBC: Cave bacteria could help develop future antibiotics