Intestinal fungal profile in healthy Saudi children

Abstract

Background and study aim: Fungi have a well-established role in medicine. Herein, we describe the fungal profile and abundance in the gut of healthy Saudi children.

Patients and methods: Fecal samples from a random sample of 20 school-age Saudi children were collected, stored at -80 °C, and dispatched to the laboratory in the USA where fungal DNAs were isolated and shotgun metagenomic sequencing was performed. Abundance was presented as average percentage of fungal taxa.

Results: The median age of the participants was 12.5 years (range: 7-16 years), and 35 % were male. Ascomycota were the most abundant phyla and Eurotiomycetes, Saccharomycetes, were the most abundant class. The average abundance of fungal genera were Histoplasma (36 %) and Saccharomyces (31 %). The most abundant species were Histoplasma capsulatum (36 %) and Saccharomyces pastorianus (23 %). Other less abundant but may be functionally important genera and species included Candida (2.6 %) and Saccharomycescerevisiae (8 %).

Conclusion: The profile and abundance of the gut fungi in healthy Saudi children reveals important differences compared to Western literature. Accordingly, this report represents a more appropriate reference than Western data to use as controls for regional studies aiming to identify fungi associated with disease.

Keywords: Children; Microbiome; Mycobiome; Saudi Arabia.