Abstract
There is a pressing need for longitudinal studies which examine the stability of the sinonasal microbiota. In this study, we investigated bacterial and fungal community composition of the sinuses of four healthy individuals every month for one year, then once every three months for an additional year to capture seasonal variation. Sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes and fungal ITS2 revealed communities that were mainly dominated by members of Actinobacteria and Basidiomycota, respectively. We observed overall shifts in both bacterial and fungal community diversity that were attributable to a combination of individual, seasonal and annual changes. The results suggest that each of the subjects possessed a strong bacterial sinonasal signature, but that fungal communities were less subject specific. Differences in fungal and bacterial diversity between subjects, and which OTUs may be correlated with seasonal differences, were investigated. A small core community that persisted throughout the two year sampling period was identified: Corynebacterium, Propionibacterium and Staphylococcus, and one type of fungus, Malassezia restricta. It is likely that bacterial and fungal airway microbiomes are dynamic and experience natural shifts in diversity with time. The underlying reasons for these shifts appear to be a combination of changes in environmental climate and host factors.
Highlights
There is a pressing need for longitudinal studies which examine the stability of the sinonasal microbiota
The microbiome of the anterior nares was characterised by an abundance of Malassezia species, and bacteria from the phylum Actinobacteria were negatively correlated with members of the fungal phyla Basidiomycota and Ascomycota[37]
DNA was extracted from 128 swab samples from four subjects, and the PCR-amplified fungal ITS2 and V3-V4 hypervariable regions of bacterial 16S rRNA genes were sequenced using Illumina MiSeq
Summary
There is a pressing need for longitudinal studies which examine the stability of the sinonasal microbiota. The microbiome of the anterior nares was characterised by an abundance of Malassezia species, and bacteria from the phylum Actinobacteria were negatively correlated with members of the fungal phyla Basidiomycota and Ascomycota[37]. Another recent cross-sectional study characterised bacteria and fungi in the middle meatuses of control subjects and patients with chronic rhinosinusitis. We examined the temporal composition of bacterial and fungal communities in parallel in a cohort of four healthy adults We established that these communities are dynamic and may correlate with seasonal changes. We identified core bacterial and fungal community members that were present consistently across the two year sampling period, and conducted correlation analyses between bacterial and fungal taxa
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