Intestinal Microbiota in Healthy Adults: Temporal Analysis Reveals Individual and Common Core and Relation to Intestinal Symptoms

Abstract

BackgroundWhile our knowledge of the intestinal microbiota during disease is accumulating, basic information of the microbiota in healthy subjects is still scarce. The aim of this study was to characterize the intestinal microbiota of healthy adults and specifically address its temporal stability, core microbiota and relation with intestinal symptoms. We carried out a longitudinal study by following a set of 15 healthy Finnish subjects for seven weeks and regularly assessed their intestinal bacteria and archaea with the Human Intestinal Tract (HIT)Chip, a phylogenetic microarray, in conjunction with qPCR analyses. The health perception and occurrence of intestinal symptoms was recorded by questionnaire at each sampling point.Principal FindingsA high overall temporal stability of the microbiota was observed. Five subjects showed transient microbiota destabilization, which correlated not only with the intake of antibiotics but also with overseas travelling and temporary illness, expanding the hitherto known factors affecting the intestinal microbiota. We identified significant correlations between the microbiota and common intestinal symptoms, including abdominal pain and bloating. The most striking finding was the inverse correlation between Bifidobacteria and abdominal pain: subjects who experienced pain had over five-fold less Bifidobacteria compared to those without pain. Finally, a novel computational approach was used to define the common core microbiota, highlighting the role of the analysis depth in finding the phylogenetic core and estimating its size. The in-depth analysis suggested that we share a substantial number of our intestinal phylotypes but as they represent highly variable proportions of the total community, many of them often remain undetected.Conclusions/SignificanceA global and high-resolution microbiota analysis was carried out to determine the temporal stability, the associations with intestinal symptoms, and the individual and common core microbiota in healthy adults. The findings provide new approaches to define intestinal health and to further characterize the microbial communities inhabiting the human gut.

Signature of Microbial Dysbiosis in Periodontitis

“…However, cluster 5 also contained healthy subgingival samples, indicating that further investigations are necessary to understand and to develop prediction markers for chronic periodontitis. A core community (genera present in at least 50% of the samples) is usually identified in publications and provides a basis for disease diagnosis, prevention, and therapeutic targets (18,19). However, the variability of genera expands as the sample size increases, thus limiting its use for establishing an easy microbiological marker for dysbiosis.…”

Microbiota conservation and BMI signatures in adult monozygotic twins

“…literature, no consensus on a general human GI microbial core has emerged (Hamady and Knight, 2009;Tap et al, 2009;Turnbaugh et al, 2009;Qin et al, 2010;Claesson et al, 2011;Jalanka-Tuovinen et al, 2011;Salonen et al, 2012). In our cohort we could define a general core microbiota of 96 phylotype-like groups prevalent in all subjects that accounts for 34.7% of the total microbiota (s.d.…”

“…Previous studies have shown that GI microbiota is host-specific and GI tract region-specific (Zoetendal et al, 2004;Rajilic-Stojanovic et al, 2009;Jalanka-Tuovinen et al, 2011), aberrant in composition and stability in patients suffering from GI disorders such as Crohn's disease (Seksik et al, 2003), and associated to host energy homeostasis (Backhed et al, 2004;Ley et al, 2006;Turnbaugh et al, 2006;Backhed et al, 2007;Samuel et al, 2008). Analysis of global fecal microbiomes introduced the concept that human GI microbiota appeared to have three distinct structural biometypes called enterotypes (Arumugam et al, 2011).…”

Discordant temporal development of bacterial phyla and the emergence of core in the fecal microbiota of young children

“…In contrast, the gut microbiota of healthy adults is individual specific and relatively stable in time (Claesson et al, 2011;Jalanka-Tuovinen et al, 2011;Rajilić-Stojanović et al, 2013). Two main phyla, Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, constitute over 90% of the microbiota in healthy adults, followed by Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria and Verrucomicrobia (Claesson et al, 2011;Jalanka-Tuovinen et al, 2011;RingelKulka et al, 2013;Voreades et al, 2014).…”