Identification of gut microbiome features associated with host metabolic health in a large population-based cohort

Keshet A, Segal E, Nature Communications

Paper summary

This paper examines the relationship between gut microbiome and Host metabolic health.

Microbiome data was analyzed on a functional level - examining microbial gene families and metabolic pathways that are contributed by the entire gut microbiome community.

For host metabolic health 38 measures were examined - from CGM, DXA and liver US.

Significant associations were uncovered between microbial gene families and pathways and host metabolic health. Many significant associations were observed specifically for body composition measures.

Variability was found in the number of species and genera contributing to the abundance of the associated gene families and pathways - suggesting that the discovered associations do not represent a unique species or genera but an association with a community level functionality.

Most of the associations remained unchanged when adjusting for nutritional information for diet logging, with CGM within-day variability measures most affected with a reduction in the amount of significant associations.

Associations with BMI were replicated in an external cohort of Dutch microbiome.

This results could pave the way for future research on the relation between microbiome and host metabolic health, and perhaps to the development of microbiome based therapeutics.