A cross-sectional comparative study of gut bacterial community of Indian and Finnish children

Shreyas V Kumbhare,Somak P Chowdhury,Samuli Rautava,Ruchi Joshi,Akihito Endo,Seppo Salminen,Arthur C Ouwehand,Ravindra H Patil,Jaana Mättö,Yogesh S Shouche,Erika Isolauri,Ashish R Bavdekar,Nitinkumar P Patil,Dhiraj P Dhotre,Himanshu Kumar

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-11215-y

Abstract

The human gut microbiome plays a crucial role in the compositional development of gut microbiota. Though well documented in western pediatrics population, little is known about how various host conditions affect populations in different geographic locations such as the Indian subcontinent. Given the impact of distinct environmental conditions, our study assess the gut bacterial diversity of a small cohort of Indian and Finnish children and investigated the influence of FUT2 secretor status and birth mode on the gut microbiome of these populations. Using multiple profiling techniques, we show that the gut bacterial community structure in 13–14-year-old Indian (n = 47) and Finnish (n = 52) children differs significantly. Specifically, Finnish children possessed higher Blautia and Bifidobacterium, while genera Prevotella and Megasphaera were predominant in Indian children. Our study also demonstrates a strong influence of FUT2 and birth mode variants on specific gut bacterial taxa, influence of which was noticed to differ between the two populations under study.

Highlights

Microbial communities associated with the human gut respond and interact with host immune and digestive functions, contributing greatly to the overall well-being of the human body[1,2,3]
Extended bar plot analysis revealed significant differences in 7 out of 12 bacterial species (Fig. 1b), with Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis and Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis being significantly higher in Finnish children (Welch’s t-test, q =
These results indicate that the metabolic profiles of gut microbiota were substantially different amongst two populations and between FUT2 and birth mode variants within the population. In this cross-sectional comparative study, we found that the gut microbial composition of Finnish and Indian children differed significantly, with a distinct set of bacterial taxa being predominant in each population

Summary

Introduction

Microbial communities associated with the human gut respond and interact with host immune and digestive functions, contributing greatly to the overall well-being of the human body[1,2,3]. The precocious alterations in the gut microbiome are known to be the major contributors for the underlying mechanism of early age obesity[18,19,20] These alterations can lead to long-term consequences with increased risk of diseases in the later life. The association of practices in the early life of infants, with the gut microbial alterations is clear from the extensive studies carried out in the western cohorts; there is scarce information available about such influences in the Indian population. The present work aims at comparing the gut microbiota of 13-14-year-old Indian and Finnish children in a pilot study cohort, and to assess the influence of FUT2 polymorphism and mode of delivery on the gut microbial composition of these populations

Methods

Results

Conclusion