Study on tongue coating microbes of bitter taste, sticky and greasy taste in chronic atrophic gastritis

Abstract

Objective: To objectively reveal the relationship between tongue coating microbes and bitter taste, sticky and greasy taste in chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG) patients.

Methods: 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing was used to detect bacterial diversity and community composition of tongue coating microbes from samples of CAG patients. LEfSe algorithm was used for discovering the different tongue coating microbes in CAG patients with or without bitter taste, also that in CAG patients with or without sticky and greasy taste.

Results: We respectively compared the features of tongue coating microbes in bitter taste, sticky and greasy taste of CAG patients. At the genus level, 25 tongue coating microbes were significantly different in CAG patients with bitter taste or without bitter taste; 17 tongue coating microbes were significantly different in CAG patients with sticky and greasy taste or without sticky and greasy taste. and were closely related to CAG patients with bitter taste. , , and were closely related to CAG patients with stick and greasy taste.

Conclusion: and possibly contribute to bitter taste of CAG patients, and and contribute to stick and greasy taste of CAG patients, which is potential for the diagnosis and treatment of CAG.

Keywords: Campylobacter; Enterococcus; Leptotrichia; Selenomonas; Serratia; gastritis, atrophic; taste.

Figure 1. Comparison on tongue coating microbes in CAG patients with or without bitter taste

A: cladogram plot. Red nodes indicated significantly enriched bacterial colony with significant impact in CAG patients with bitter taste, and blue nodes indicated significantly enriched bacterial colony with significant impact in CAG patients without bitter taste. Light yellow nodes indicated bacterial colony without significant difference in both CAG patients with bitter taste and without bitter taste. B: LDA discriminant analysis. Red bar represented the bacterial colony enriched in CAG patients with bitter taste; blue bar represented the bacterial colony enriched in the CAG patients without bitter taste. CAG: chronic atrophic gastritis; LDA: linear discriminative analysis.

Figure 2. Heatmap of spearman correlation between tongue coating microbes and bitter taste

A: twenty-six genera and bitter taste. The horizontal coordinates in the graph was tongue coating microbes, the vertical coordinates were the symptom of bitter taste. Red indicated positive correlation, blue indicated negative correlation. The darker color indicated stronger correlation. The magnitude of significant P values was marked with a, b, c (0.01 < ^aP ≤ 0.05, 0.001 < ^bP ≤ 0.01, ^cP ≤ 0.001). B: eleven positively correlated genera and bitter taste. The horizontal coordinates in the graph was tongue coating microbes, the vertical coordinates were the symptom of bitter taste. Red indicated a strong positive correlation, blue indicated a weak positive correlation. The darker color indicated stronger correlation. The magnitude of significant P values was marked with a, b, c (0.01 < ^aP ≤ 0.05, 0.001 < ^bP ≤ 0.01, ^cP ≤ 0.001). C: fifteen negatively correlated genera and bitter taste. The horizontal coordinates in the graph was tongue coating microbes, the vertical coordinates were the symptom of bitter taste. Red indicated weak negative correlation and blue indicated strong negative correlation. The darker color indicated stronger correlation. The magnitude of significant P values was marked with a, b, c (0.01 < ^aP ≤ 0.05, 0.001 < ^bP ≤ 0.01, ^cP ≤ 0.001).

Figure 3. Comparison on tongue coating microbes in CAG patients with or without sticky and greasy taste

A: cladogram plot. red nodes indicated significantly enriched bacterial colony with significant impact in CAG patients with sticky and greasy taste, and blue nodes indicated significantly enriched bacterial colony with significant impact in CAG patients without sticky and greasy taste. light yellow nodes indicated bacterial colony without significant difference in both CAG patients with or without sticky and greasy taste. B: LDA discriminant analysis. red bar represented the bacterial colony enriched in CAG patients with sticky and greasy taste; blue bar represented the bacterial colony enriched in CAG patients with sticky and greasy taste. CAG: chronic atrophic gastritis; LDA: linear discriminative analysis.

Figure 4. Heatmap of the spearman correlation between tongue coating microbes and sticky greasy taste

A: seventeen genera and sticky greasy taste: The horizontal coordinates in the graph was tongue coating microbes, the vertical coordinates were the symptom of sticky greasy taste. Red indicated positive correlation, blue indicated negative correlation. The darker color indicated stronger correlation. The magnitude of significant P values was marked with a, b, c (0.01 < ^aP ≤ 0.05, 0.001 < ^bP ≤ 0.01, ^cP ≤ 0.001). B: four positively correlated genera and sticky greasy taste. The horizontal coordinates were tongue coating microbes; the vertical coordinates were the symptom of sticky greasy taste. Red indicated a strong positive correlation, blue indicates a weak positive correlation. The darker color indicated stronger correlation. The magnitude of significant P values was marked with a, b, c (0.01 < ^aP ≤ 0.05, 0.001 < ^bP ≤ 0.01, ^cP ≤ 0.001). C: 13 negatively correlated genera and sticky greasy taste. The horizontal coordinates in the graph was tongue coating microbes, the vertical coordinates were the symptoms of sticky greasy taste. Red indicated weak negative correlation and blue indicates strong negative correlation. The darker color indicated stronger correlation. The magnitude of significant P values was marked with a, b, c (0.01 < ^aP ≤ 0.05, 0.001 < ^bP ≤ 0.01, ^cP ≤ 0.001).

Figure S1. Heatmap of KEGG function on the tongue coating microbes enriched in the group with or without bitter taste

Figure S2. Heatmap of KEGG function on the tongue coating microbes enriched in the group with or without sticky and greasy taste