Human Microbiota of the Argentine Population- A Pilot Study

Abstract

The human microbiota is the collection of microorganisms living in or on the human body. An imbalance or dysbiosis in these microbial communities can be associated with a wide variety of human diseases (Petersen and Round, 2014; Pham and Lawley, 2014; Zaura et al., 2014). Moreover, when the microbiota of the same body sites is compared between different healthy individuals, specific microbial community features are apparent (Li et al., 2012; Yatsunenko et al., 2012; Oh et al., 2014; Relman, 2015). In addition, specific selective pressures are found at distinct body sites leading to different patterns in microbial community structure and composition (Costello et al., 2009; Consortium, 2012b; Zhou et al., 2013). Because of these natural variations, a comprehensive characterization of the healthy microbiota is critical for predicting alterations related to diseases. This characterization should be based on a broad healthy population over time, geography, and culture (Yatsunenko et al., 2012; Shetty et al., 2013; Leung et al., 2015; Ross et al., 2015). The study of healthy individuals representing different ages, cultural traditions, and ethnic origins will enable to understand how the associated microbiota varies between populations and respond to different lifestyles. It is important to address these natural variations in order to later detect variations related to disease.

Keywords: South America; amplicon sequencing; dysbiosis; healthy microbiota; human microbiome.

FIGURE 1

Diversity analysis of the Argentine human microbiota. (A) Alpha diversity analysis based on OTU richness, BM, buccal mucosa; TH, throat; PT, palatine tonsils; AN, anterior nares; SA, saliva; GT, gut. (B) Beta diversity analysis based on weighted Unifrac pairwise distances, each color represents the same body part as in (A).

FIGURE 2

Taxonomic profiles. Twenty top abundant bacterial families in the Argentine and US (HMP) human microbiota. ARG, Argentine population; BM, buccal mucosa; TH, throat; PT, palatine tonsils; AN, anterior nares; SA, saliva; GT, gut.