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. 2023 Dec 19;18(12):e0292645.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0292645. eCollection 2023.

Differences in the gut microbiota between Gurkhas and soldiers of British origin

Thomas D Troth  1 , Ross S McInnes  1 , Steven J Dunn  1 , Jeremy Mirza  1 , Annalise H Whittaker  2 , Sarah A Goodchild  2 , Nicholas J Loman  1 , Sarah V Harding  2   3 , Willem van Schaik  1
Affiliations

Differences in the gut microbiota between Gurkhas and soldiers of British origin

Thomas D Troth et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Previous work indicated that the incidence of travellers' diarrhoea (TD) is higher in soldiers of British origin, when compared to soldiers of Nepalese descent (Gurkhas). We hypothesise that the composition of the gut microbiota may be a contributing factor in the risk of developing TD in soldiers of British origin. This study aimed to characterise the gut microbial composition of Gurkha and non-Gurkha soldiers of the British Army. Recruitment of 38 soldiers (n = 22 Gurkhas, n = 16 non-Gurkhas) and subsequent stool collection, enabled shotgun metagenomic sequencing-based analysis of the gut microbiota. The microbiota of Gurkhas had significantly (P < 0.05) lower diversity, for both Shannon and Simpson diversity indices, using species level markers than the gut microbiota of non-Gurkha soldiers. Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS) of the Bray-Curtis distance matrix revealed a significant difference in the composition of the gut microbiota between Gurkhas and non-Gurkha soldiers, at both the species level (P = 0.0178) and the genus level (P = 0.0483). We found three genera and eight species that were significantly enriched in the non-Gurkha group and one genus (Haemophilus) and one species (Haemophilus parainfluenzae) which were enriched in the Gurkha group. The difference in the microbiota composition between Gurkha soldiers and soldiers of British origin may contribute to higher colonization resistance against diarrhoeal pathogens in the former group. Our findings may enable further studies into interventions that modulate the gut microbiota of soldiers to prevent TD during deployment.

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Conflict of interest statement

TDT holds the position of Major in the British Army, and WvS offers consultancy services to companies with IP in microbiota therapeutics. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Genus level composition of British soldier’s gut microbiota.
The composition of British soldier’s gut microbiome samples at the genus level. The size of the circle represents the relative abundance of the genus in a sample and the colour represents, Gurkha (blue) or Non-Gurkha (gold). Only genera that had a relative abundance greater than 1% in one or more samples were included.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Diversity analysis of species-level markers.
A. Shannon diversity. B. Simpson diversity in Gurkha and non-Gurkha soldiers using species-level markers. Statistical analysis was performed using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Microbiota composition analysis of Gurkhas and non-Gurkhas.
Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS) distribution of the Bray-Curtis distance matrix generated from species-level abundance (panel A) and genus-level abundance (panel B) is shown. Statistical testing of the differences in microbiota composition between the two groups (panel A, P = 0.0178; panel B, P = 0.0483) was performed by running 10,000 instances of a permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA). Stress: panel A: 0.19, panel B: 0.2. 50% confidence interval ellipses are indicated. The ZymoBiomics Fecal Reference with TruMatrix Technology (Zymo Research, California, USA) was included as a positive control.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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