Abstract
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative disease, and is so far not considered curable. PD patients suffer from several motor and non-motor symptoms, including gastrointestinal dysfunctions and alterations of the enteric nervous system. Constipation and additional intestinal affections can precede the classical motor symptoms by several years. Recently, we reported effects of PD and related medications on the faecal bacterial community of 34 German PD patients and 25 age-matched controls. Here, we used the same collective and analysed the V6 and V7 hypervariable region of PCR-amplified, eukaryotic 18S rRNA genes using an Illumina MiSeq platform. In all, 53% (18) of the PD samples and 72% (18) of the control samples yielded sufficient amplicons for downstream community analyses. The PD samples showed a significantly lower alpha and a different beta eukaryotic diversity than the controls. Most strikingly, we observed a significantly higher relative abundance of sequence affiliated with the Geotrichum genus in the PD samples (39.7%), when compared to the control samples (0.05%). In addition, we observed lower relative abundances of sequences affiliated with Aspergillus/Penicillium, Charophyta/Linum, unidentified Opisthokonta and three genera of minor abundant zooflagellates in the PD samples. Our data add knowledge to the small body of data about the eukaryotic microbiota of PD patients and suggest a potential association of certain gut eukaryotes and PD.
Highlights
Parkinson’s disease (PD) represents the second most common human neurodegenerative disorder
18 (53%) of the PD patient samples (6 females and 12 males) and 18 (72%) of the control group samples (10 females and 8 males) yielded sufficient 18S rRNA gene amplicons for downstream applications. Additional information about those samples is provided in Supplementary Table 1
Assignment of taxonomy was done with the seven taxonomic ranks provided by SILVA, where the sixth rank equals genera for most listed taxa, the fifth lists mainly families, the fourth mainly orders, and so forth
Summary
Parkinson’s disease (PD) represents the second most common human neurodegenerative disorder. Other studies even indicate that the pathological process of PD alongside the gut–brain axis might be modulated or initiated by the gut microbiota[21,22]. Most PD microbiota studies focused on intestinal bacteria, and there is growing evidence that bacterial dysbiosis may play an important role in PD pathogenesis[17–19]. Associations with shifts in the phagobiota in PD patients were reported, suggesting a closer look at the non-bacterial microbiota associated with this disease[26]. Reports showed a connection between gut eukaryotes and anorexia nervosa, a central nervous disease[31], as well as autism spectrum disorders[32]. Differences in the faecal eukaryotic microbiota composition 0.0128) UniFrac measure. Monitoring differences in the composition of faecal eukaryotes between PD patients and suitable healthy controls is a first step to elucidate whether gut eukaryotes mighty play any role in PD.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
