What defines us and other living organisms more strongly: genes or the environment? Only recently, researchers were able to prove experimentally that even microorganisms can be inherited from one plant generation to the next via the seed. In an article just published open access in the journal ‚Trends in Microbiology‘, scientists examine the process of microbial inheritance via the seed in more detail and identify factors that significantly influence the assembly of the plant microbiome. With their basic work, the authors create an important milestone of microbiome research.