The structure of Brazilian Amazonian gut microbiomes in the process of urbanisation

Abstract

Shifts in subsistence strategy among Native American people of the Amazon may be the cause of typically western diseases previously linked to modifications of gut microbial communities. Here, we used 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing to characterise the gut microbiome of 114 rural individuals, namely Xikrin, Suruí and Tupaiú, and urban individuals from Belém city, in the Brazilian Amazon. Our findings show the degree of potential urbanisation occurring in the gut microbiome of rural Amazonian communities characterised by the gradual loss and substitution of taxa associated with rural lifestyles, such as Treponema. Comparisons to worldwide populations indicated that Native American groups are similar to South American agricultural societies and urban groups are comparable to African urban and semi-urban populations. The transitioning profile observed among traditional populations is concerning in light of increasingly urban lifestyles. Lastly, we propose the term “tropical urban” to classify the microbiome of urban populations living in tropical zones.

Midgut bacterial microbiota of 12 fish species from a marine protected area in the Aegean Sea (Greece)

“…The captivity conditions of wild animals [e.g., [70, 71]] and even urbanization of human populations [e.g., [72]] have been shown to alter the gut microbiomes of these macroorganisms. Of the 12 fish species investigated in the present study, and according to the Hellenic Statistical Authority (https://www.statistics.gr/en/home/), only Pagrus pagrus is included in the list of farmed fish in Greece.…”

Functional host-specific adaptation of the intestinal microbiome in hominids

“…Human gut microbiome research has demonstrated that numerous factors, including diet, environment, and lifestyle influence the structure of the human gut microbiota, which, in turn, has profound impacts on human health and disease (Johnson et al, 2019; Lloyd-Price et al, 2019; Vangay et al, 2018). To date, the majority of these studies have been conducted on sample collections from high-income countries and only recently, has interest shifted to include humans from diverse global populations, thereby providing an additional angle to investigate and evaluate shared and specific microbiome properties across human populations (McCall et al, 2020; Schaan et al, 2021; E. D. Sonnenburg and Sonnenburg, 2019; Vangay et al, 2018). These recent efforts provided an opportunity to discover microbiome signatures of host geography and lifestyle that go beyond differences in microbiota diversity structures.…”