Different host factors are associated with patterns in bacterial and fungal gut microbiota in Slovenian healthy cohort

PLoS One. 2018 Dec 20;13(12):e0209209. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0209209. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Gut microbiota in a healthy population is shaped by various geographic, demographic and lifestyle factors. Although the majority of research remains focused on the bacterial community, recent efforts to include the remaining microbial members like viruses, archaea and especially fungi revealed various functions they perform in the gut. Using the amplicon sequencing approach we analysed bacterial and fungal gut communities in a Slovenian cohort of 186 healthy volunteers. In the bacterial microbiome we detected 253 different genera. A core microbiome analysis revealed high consistency with previous studies, most prominently showing that genera Faecalibacterium, Bacteroides and Roseburia regularly comprise the core community. We detected a total of 195 fungal genera, but the majority of these showed low prevalence and are likely transient foodborne contaminations. The fungal community showed a low diversity per sample and a large interindividual variability. The most abundant fungi were Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida albicans. These, along with representatives from genera Penicillium and Debaryomyces, cover 82% of obtained reads. We report three significant questionnaire-based host covariates associated with microbiota composition. Bacterial community was associated with age and gender. More specifically, bacterial diversity was increased with age and was higher in the female population compared to male. The analysis of fungal community showed that more time dedicated to physical activity resulted in a higher fungal diversity and lower abundance of S. cerevisiae. This is likely dependent on different diets, which were reported by participants according to the respective rates of physical activity.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Age Factors
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Bacteria / classification
  • Bacteria / genetics
  • Bacteria / isolation & purification
  • Biodiversity
  • Cohort Studies
  • Exercise
  • Female
  • Gastrointestinal Microbiome* / genetics
  • Healthy Volunteers
  • Host Microbial Interactions*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Mycobiome / genetics
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA
  • Sex Factors
  • Slovenia
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Slovenian Research Agency (research core funding P3-0387 and PhD program 'Mladi raziskovalci').