Abstract
BackgroundArchaea are one of the least-studied members of the gut-dwelling autochthonous microbiota. Few studies have reported the dominance of methanogens in the archaeal microbiome (archaeome) of the human gut, although limited information regarding the diversity and abundance of other archaeal phylotypes is available.ResultsWe surveyed the archaeome of faecal samples collected from 897 East Asian subjects living in South Korea. In total, 42.47% faecal samples were positive for archaeal colonisation; these were subsequently subjected to archaeal 16S rRNA gene deep sequencing and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction-based abundance estimation. The mean archaeal relative abundance was 10.24 ± 4.58% of the total bacterial and archaeal abundance. We observed extensive colonisation of haloarchaea (95.54%) in the archaea-positive faecal samples, with 9.63% mean relative abundance in archaeal communities. Haloarchaea were relatively more abundant than methanogens in some samples. The presence of haloarchaea was also verified by fluorescence in situ hybridisation analysis. Owing to large inter-individual variations, we categorised the human gut archaeome into four archaeal enterotypes.ConclusionsThe study demonstrated that the human gut archaeome is indigenous, responsive, and functional, expanding our understanding of the archaeal signature in the gut of human individuals.C2ZBUs6SCY_qq35PWZmhrcVideo
Highlights
Archaea are one of the least-studied members of the gut-dwelling autochthonous microbiota
The detection of archaea is highly dependent on the methodology used, a maximum prevalence of 23% and 97.5% has been reported for the methanogens belonging to the order Methanobacteriales: Methanobrevibacter smithii and Methanosphaera stadtmanae, respectively, in the human gastrointestinal tract [12]
The results showed that 381 out of 897 faecal samples (42.47%) were positive for archaeal colonisation, and the positive samples were subsequently subjected to deep sequencing of the gut archaeome
Summary
Archaea are one of the least-studied members of the gut-dwelling autochthonous microbiota. Few studies have reported the dominance of methanogens in the archaeal microbiome (archaeome) of the human gut, limited information regarding the diversity and abundance of other archaeal phylotypes is available. The human gut harbours various biological entities such as bacteria, archaea, unicellular eukaryotes, and viruses [1]. These microbial entities constitutively contribute to the microbial signature, thereby maintaining the inherent characteristics of the gastrointestinal tract. Studies have focused on the genetic and functional traits of gut bacteria [2]. The introduction of next-generation sequencing technologies in gut microbiology has revealed. Several studies have confirmed the presence of archaea on the
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