Mongolians Core Gut Microbiota And Its Correlation With Dietary Changes

It is known that the gut microbiome is closely related to the maintenance of human health, with gut microbiota playing important roles in extracting nutrients from the host diet, regulating host fat storage, stimulating intestinal epithelium renewal, and directing the maturation of the immune system. Mongolian nationality originates from a tribe that was located in Northern China during the seventh century. The Mongol Empire, one of the world’s largest contiguous empires, exerted a major influence that greatly enhanced the cultural exchange between China and the occident that took place during the Middle Ages. The typical Mongolian diet is characterised by a high and frequent consumption of fermented dairy products, red meat and liquor.However, by now, little is known about the structure of Mongolian gut microbiota or about how this microbial community is affected by urbanisation and modernisation. In the present study,320faecal samples were collected from64Mongolians distributed in three areas (Ulan Bator, TUW and Khentii) at five time points (January, March, June, September and November).454pyrosequencing combined with q-PCR technology were applied to explore the structure of Mongolians’gut microbiota and the effects of seasonal dietary changes on their intestinal microbiota. We explored the impacts of urbanisation and seasonal dietary changes on the Mongolians’gut microbes.At the phylum level, the Mongolians’s gut populations were marked by a dominance of Bacteroidetes (55.56%) and a low Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes ratio (0.71). At the genus level, Prevotella of the Firmicutes phylum was the most abundant genus. Using genus-specific primers, we quantified the predominant microbiota in the human gut. The amounts of Bacteroides, Bifidobacterium, Enterobacter, Prevotella, Lactobacillus and Faecalibacterium genera were9.61±0.13,8.02±0.85,7.59±0.21,9.66±0.17,6.53±0.18and10.34±0.71in log-transformed16S rDNA gene copy number per gram of sample, respectively. Analysis based on the operational taxonomic unit (OTU) level revealed that the Mongolian core intestinal microbiota comprised the genera Prevotella, Bacteroides, Faecalibacterium, Ruminococcus, Subdoligranulum and Coprococcus. Aligned to the KEGG database, these genus were mainly contributed to the metabolism of Glycolysis. Fatty acid, Starch and sucrose, Alanine, aspartate and glutamate and Galactose.Due to urbanisation and life-style, the compositions of the gut microbiota of Mongolians from Ulan Bator, TUW and Khentii were distinct. The genera Prevotella, Solobacterium, Succinivibrio, Shigella, Olsenella, Oribacterium and Lactobacillus were abundant in Khentii residents, and the genera Bacteroides, Oscillibacter, Roseburia, Alistipes, Coprococcus, Parabacteroides were abundant in Ulan Bator residents. Based on a food frequency questionnaire, we found that the dietary structure was diverse and stable throughOTU the year in Ulan Bator and TUW, but was simple and varied during the year in Khentii. Accordingly, seasonal effects on intestinal microbiota were more distinct in Khentii residents than in TUW or Ulan Bator residents. Further research based on the Procrustes analysis confirmed this point.