Characterization of Changes and Driver Microbes in Gut Microbiota During Healthy Aging Using a Captive Monkey Model

Abstract

Recent population studies have significantly advanced our understanding of how age shapes the gut microbiota. However, the actual role of age could be inevitably confounded due to the complex and variable environmental factors in human populations. A well-controlled environment is thus necessary to reduce undesirable confounding effects, and recapitulate age-dependent changes in the gut microbiota of healthy primates. Herein we performed 16S rRNA gene sequencing, characterized the age-associated gut microbial profiles from infant to elderly crab-eating macaques reared in captivity, and systemically revealed the lifelong dynamic changes of the primate gut microbiota. While the most significant age-associated taxa were mainly found as commensals such as Faecalibacterium, the abundance of a group of suspicious pathogens such as Helicobacter was exclusively increased in infants, underlining their potential role in host development. Importantly, topology analysis indicated that the network connectivity of gut microbiota was even more age-dependent than taxonomic diversity, and its tremendous decline with age could probably be linked to healthy aging. Moreover, we identified key driver microbes responsible for such age-dependent network changes, which were further linked to altered metabolic functions of lipids, carbohydrates, and amino acids, as well as phenotypes in the microbial community. The current study thus demonstrates the lifelong age-dependent changes and their driver microbes in the primate gut microbiota, and provides new insights into their roles in the development and healthy aging of their hosts.

Animal Age Affects the Gut Microbiota and Immune System in Captive Koalas ( Phascolarctos cinereus )

“…So, we calculated the Bacteroidetes / Firmicutes (B/F) ratio. The B/F ratio was higher in subadult and adult koalas and decreased in aged koalas, resembling observations in humans or other mammal animals ( 51 , 52 ). As PCoA revealed, the gut microbiotas of samples within each group were remarkably similar, whereas different age groups clustered differentially.…”

Dynamic Changes of Bacterial Communities and Microbial Association Networks in Ready-to-Eat Chicken Meat during Storage

“…To investigate co-associations among bacterial taxa, we used the network inference tool SparCC, which is based on an iterative approximation approach and uses log-ratio transformed data to infer the correlations between components. SparCC’s correlation was estimated using the psych package in R. Robust correlations were defined as those with the Pearson correlation coefficient threshold values of >0.2 and p < 0.05 [ 26 ]. The network analysis was conducted using the igraph (1.2.6) package in R ( , accessed on 5 May 2021 ).…”

The gut microbiota is an emerging target for improving brain health during ageing

“…While the composition of the gut microbiome is relatively stable during early- to mid-adulthood if unperturbed, as an individual grows older, the gut microbiota enters a period of increased volatility and distinct shifts occur in the diversity of genera and functional capacity ( Badal et al, 2020 ; Claesson et al, 2011 ). Ageing-associated alterations to microbial diversity and composition of the gut microbiome have been observed in multiple species, including flies (eg., Drosophila ), worms (eg., Caenorhabditis elegans ), rodents, dogs, monkeys ( Ambrosini et al, 2019 ; Dinić et al, 2021 ; Kubinyi et al, 2020 ; Lee et al, 2019 ; Pallikkuth et al, 2021 ; Scott et al, 2017 ; van der Lugt et al, 2018 ; Wei et al, 2021 ) and in humans ( Biagi et al, 2010 ; Claesson et al, 2012 ; Jeffery et al, 2016 ; Leite et al, 2021 ). This may be due to a multitude of biological and environmental factors, including immunosenescence ( Bosco and Noti, 2021 ), altered physiology of the gastrointestinal tract ( Soenen et al, 2016 ), development of age-related diseases, and in humans, increased exposure to medication and altered diet associated with long-term care facilities ( Claesson et al, 2012 ).…”