No abstract

Background Comparisons of traditional hunter-gatherers and pre-agricultural communities in Africa with urban and suburban Western North American and European cohorts have clearly shown that diet, lifestyle and environment are associated with gut microbiome composition. Yet, little is known about the gut microbiome composition of most communities in the very diverse African continent. South Africa comprises a richly diverse ethnolinguistic population that is experiencing an ongoing epidemiological transition and concurrent spike in the prevalence of obesity, largely attributed to a shift towards more Westernized diets and increasingly inactive lifestyle practices. To characterize the microbiome of African adults living in more mainstream lifestyle settings and investigate associations between the microbiome and obesity, we conducted a pilot study, designed collaboratively with community leaders, in two South African cohorts representative of urban and transitioning rural populations. As the rate of overweight and obesity is particularly high in women, we collected single time-point stool samples from 170 HIV-negative women (51 at Soweto; 119 at Bushbuckridge), performed 16S rRNA gene sequencing on these samples and compared the data to concurrently collected anthropometric data. Results We found the overall gut microbiome of our cohorts to be reflective of their ongoing epidemiological transition. Specifically, we find that geographical location was more important for sample clustering than lean/obese status and observed a relatively higher abundance of the Melainabacteria, Vampirovibrio, a predatory bacterium, in Bushbuckridge. Also, Prevotella, despite its generally high prevalence in the cohorts, showed an association with obesity. In comparisons with benchmarked datasets representative of non-Western populations, relatively higher abundance values were observed in our dataset for Barnesiella (log2fold change (FC) = 4.5), Alistipes (log2FC = 3.9), Bacteroides (log2FC = 4.2), Parabacteroides (log2FC = 3.1) and Treponema (log2FC = 1.6), with the exception of Prevotella (log2FC = − 4.7). Conclusions Altogether, this work identifies putative microbial features associated with host health in a historically understudied community undergoing an epidemiological transition. Furthermore, we note the crucial role of community engagement to the success of a study in an African setting, the importance of more population-specific studies to inform targeted interventions as well as present a basic foundation for future research.

BackgroundPopulation differentiation is the result of demographic and evolutionary forces. Whole genome datasets from the 1000 Genomes Project (October 2012) provide an unbiased view of genetic variation across populations from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. Common population-specific SNPs (MAF > 0.05) reflect a deep history and may have important consequences for health and wellbeing. Their interpretation is contextualised by currently available genome data.ResultsThe identification of common population-specific (CPS) variants (SNPs and SSV) is influenced by admixture and the sample size under investigation. Nine of the populations in the 1000 Genomes Project (2 African, 2 Asian (including a merged Chinese group) and 5 European) revealed that the African populations (LWK and YRI), followed by the Japanese (JPT) have the highest number of CPS SNPs, in concordance with their histories and given the populations studied. Using two methods, sliding 50-SNP and 5-kb windows, the CPS SNPs showed distinct clustering across large genome segments and little overlap of clusters between populations. iHS enrichment score and the population branch statistic (PBS) analyses suggest that selective sweeps are unlikely to account for the clustering and population specificity. Of interest is the association of clusters close to recombination hotspots. Functional analysis of genes associated with the CPS SNPs revealed over-representation of genes in pathways associated with neuronal development, including axonal guidance signalling and CREB signalling in neurones.ConclusionsCommon population-specific SNPs are non-randomly distributed throughout the genome and are significantly associated with recombination hotspots. Since the variant alleles of most CPS SNPs are the derived allele, they likely arose in the specific population after a split from a common ancestor. Their proximity to genes involved in specific pathways, including neuronal development, suggests evolutionary plasticity of selected genomic regions. Contrary to expectation, selective sweeps did not play a large role in the persistence of population-specific variation. This suggests a stochastic process towards population-specific variation which reflects demographic histories and may have some interesting implications for health and susceptibility to disease.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2164-15-437) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Human gut microbiome research focuses on populations living in high-income countries and to a lesser extent, non-urban agriculturalist and hunter-gatherer societies. The scarcity of research between these extremes limits our understanding of how the gut microbiota relates to health and disease in the majority of the world’s population. Here, we evaluate gut microbiome composition in transitioning South African populations using short- and long-read sequencing. We analyze stool from adult females living in rural Bushbuckridge (n = 118) or urban Soweto (n = 51) and find that these microbiomes are taxonomically intermediate between those of individuals living in high-income countries and traditional communities. We demonstrate that reference collections are incomplete for characterizing microbiomes of individuals living outside high-income countries, yielding artificially low beta diversity measurements, and generate complete genomes of undescribed taxa, including Treponema, Lentisphaerae, and Succinatimonas. Our results suggest that the gut microbiome of South Africans does not conform to a simple “western-nonwestern” axis and contains undescribed microbial diversity.

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) kill more than 41 million people every year, accounting for 71% of all deaths globally. The prevalence of NCDs is estimated to be higher than that of infectious diseases in Africa by 2030. Precision medicine may help with early identification of cases, resulting in timely prevention and improvement in the efficacy of treatments. However, Africa has been lagging behind in genetic research, a key component of the precision medicine initiative. A number of genomic research initiatives which could lead to translational genomics are emerging on the African continent which includes the Non-communicable Diseases Genetic Heritage Study (NCDGHS) and the Men of African Descent and Carcinoma of the Prostate (MADCaP) Network. These offer a promise that precision medicine can be applied in African countries. This review evaluates the advances of genetic studies for cancer, hypertension, type 2 diabetes and body mass index (BMI) in Africa.

The H3ABioNet pan-African bioinformatics network, which is funded to support the Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) program, has developed node-assessment exercises to gauge the ability of its participating research and service groups to analyze typical genome-wide datasets being generated by H3Africa research groups. We describe a framework for the assessment of computational genomics analysis skills, which includes standard operating procedures, training and test datasets, and a process for administering the exercise. We present the experiences of 3 research groups that have taken the exercise and the impact on their ability to manage complex projects. Finally, we discuss the reasons why many H3ABioNet nodes have declined so far to participate and potential strategies to encourage them to do so.PLOS Computational Biology | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi

Background: Comparisons of traditional hunter-gatherers and pre-agricultural communities in Africa with urban and suburban Western North American and European cohorts have clearly shown that diet, lifestyle and environment are associated with gut microbiome composition. Yet, little is known about the gut microbiome composition of most African adults. South Africa comprises a richly diverse ethnolinguistic population that is experiencing an ongoing epidemiological transition and concurrent spike in the prevalence of obesity, largely attributed to a shift towards more Westernized diets and increasingly inactive lifestyle practices. To better characterize the microbiome of African adults living in more mainstream lifestyle settings and to investigate associations between the microbiome and obesity, we conducted a pilot study in two South African cohorts that are representative of urban and rural populations. The study was designed collaboratively with community leaders. As the rate of overweight and obesity is particularly high in women, we collected single time-point stool samples from 170 HIV-negative women (51 at Soweto; 119 at Bushbuckridge), performed 16S rRNA gene sequencing on these samples and compared the data to concurrently collected anthropometric data. Results:We found the overall gut microbiome of our cohorts to be reflective of their ongoing epidemiological transition. Specifically, our results show a relatively higher than expected abundance of Western gut-associated taxa such as Barnesiella and the presence of Bifidobacteria and Bacteroides together with the more traditionally non-Western gut-associated Prevotella, Treponema and Succinivibrio. Interestingly, we observed a relatively higher abundance of the Melainabacteria, Vampirovibrio, a predatory bacterium, in the rural cohort. We also found Prevotella, despite its generally high prevalence relative to all taxa present in the cohort, to be associated with obesity. Conclusions:Altogether, this work identifies putative microbial features associated with host health in a historically understudied community. Furthermore, we note the crucial role of community engagement to the success of a study in an African setting, the importance of more population-specific studies to inform targeted interventions as well as present a basic foundation for future research in this regard.

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