The age-associated alterations in microbiomes vary across populations due to the influence of genetics and lifestyles. To the best of our knowledge, the microbial changes associated with aging have not yet been investigated in Singapore adults. We conducted shotgun metagenomic sequencing of fecal and saliva samples, as well as fecal metabolomics to characterize the gut and oral microbial communities of 62 healthy adult male Singaporeans, including 32 young subjects (age, 23.1 ± 1.4 years) and 30 elderly subjects (age, 69.0 ± 3.5 years). We identified 8 gut and 13 oral species that were differentially abundant in elderly compared to young subjects. By combining the gut and oral microbiomes, 25 age-associated oral-gut species connections were identified. Moreover, oral bacteria Acidaminococcus intestine and Flavonifractor plautii were less prevalent/abundant in elderly gut samples than in young gut samples, whereas Collinsella aerofaciens and Roseburia hominis showed the opposite trends. These results indicate the varied gut-oral communications with aging. Subsequently, we expanded the association studies on microbiome, metabolome and host phenotypic parameters. In particular, Eubacterium eligens increased in elderly compared to young subjects, and was positively correlated with triglycerides, which implies that the potential role of E. eligens in lipid metabolism is altered during the aging process. Our results demonstrated aging-associated changes in the gut and oral microbiomes, as well as the connections between metabolites and host-microbe interactions, thereby deepening the understanding of alterations in the human microbiome during the aging process in a Singapore population.
Keywords: Microbiome; aging; fecal metabolome; integrative analysis; multi-omics.