Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jan 29;11(1):2618.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-82311-3.

Ethnicity influences the gut microbiota of individuals sharing a geographical location: a cross-sectional study from a middle-income country

Jacky Dwiyanto  1 , M H Hussain  2 , D Reidpath  3   4 , K S Ong  2 , A Qasim  2   5 , S W H Lee  6 , S M Lee  2 , S C Foo  2 , C W Chong  6 , Sadequr Rahman  7   8
Affiliations

Ethnicity influences the gut microbiota of individuals sharing a geographical location: a cross-sectional study from a middle-income country

Jacky Dwiyanto et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

No studies have investigated the influence of ethnicity in a multi-ethnic middle-income country with a long-standing history of co-habitation. Stool samples from 214 Malaysian community members (46 Malay, 65 Chinese, 49 Indian, and 54 Jakun) were collected. The gut microbiota of the participants was investigated using 16S amplicon sequencing. Ethnicity exhibited the largest effect size across participants (PERMANOVA Pseudo-F = 4.24, R2 = 0.06, p = 0.001). Notably, the influence of ethnicity on the gut microbiota was retained even after controlling for all demographic, dietary factors and other covariates which were significantly associated with the gut microbiome (PERMANOVA Pseudo-F = 1.67, R2 = 0.02, p = 0.002). Our result suggested that lifestyle, dietary, and uncharacterized differences collectively drive the gut microbiota variation across ethnicity, making ethnicity a reliable proxy for both identified and unidentified lifestyle and dietary variation across ethnic groups from the same community.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Shannon (a) and Pielou’s (b) α-diversity indices across Bristol stool scale, body mass index, household income, and ethnicity with ANOVA statistical comparison.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Factors significantly associated (p < 0.05) with the gut microbiome and their effect sizes determined through univariate PERMANOVA analysis.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Principal coordinate analysis of the Segamat participants classified based on their ethnicity, ordinated using Euclidean distance matrix.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Multi-ethnic comparison of (a) gut enterotype profiles analyzed using Dirichlet Multinomial Model, and (b) Prevotella:Bacteroides ratio analyzed using linear mixed model (likelihood ratio test p < 0.05).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Taxa which were significantly differentially abundant across ethnicity in Segamat as analyzed using ALDEx2 generalized linear model (FDR < 0.1). Description: IM Indian–Malay, JI Jakun–Indian.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Predicted pathways which were significantly differentially abundant across ethnicity in Segamat as analyzed using ALDEx2 generalized linear model (FDR < 0.1). Description: CI Chinese–Indian, IM Indian–Malay, JM Jakun–Malay.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Tyakht AV, Kostryukova ES, Popenko AS, Belenikin MS, Pavlenko AV, et al. Human gut microbiota community structures in urban and rural populations in Russia. Nat. Commun. 2013;4(1):2469. doi: 10.1038/ncomms3469. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. He Y, Wu W, Zheng H-M, Li P, McDonald D, et al. Regional variation limits applications of healthy gut microbiome reference ranges and disease models. Nat. Med. 2018;24(10):1532–1535. doi: 10.1038/s41591-018-0164-x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Davenport ER, Mizrahi-Man O, Michelini K, Barreiro LB, Ober C, et al. Seasonal variation in human gut microbiome composition. PLoS ONE. 2014;9(3):e90731. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0090731. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Koliada A, Moseiko V, Romanenko M, Piven L, Lushchak O, et al. Seasonal variation in gut microbiota composition: Cross-sectional evidence from Ukrainian population. BMC Microbiol. 2020;20(1):100. doi: 10.1186/s12866-020-01786-8. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Deschasaux M, Bouter KE, Prodan A, Levin E, Groen AK, et al. Depicting the composition of gut microbiota in a population with varied ethnic origins but shared geography. Nat. Med. 2018;24(10):1526–1531. doi: 10.1038/s41591-018-0160-1. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types