Impact of diet in shaping gut microbiota revealed by a comparative study in children from Europe and rural Africa

By C. de Filippo, Duccio Cavalieri, M. di Paola, M. Ramazzotti, J. Poullet, S. Massart, S. Collini, G. Pieraccini, P. Lionetti. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2010

5,252 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Gut microbial composition depends on different dietary habits just as health depends on microbial metabolism, but the association of microbiota with different diets in human populations has not yet been shown. In this work, we compared the fecal microbiota of European children (EU) and that of children from a rural African village of Burkina Faso (BF), where the diet, high in fiber content, is similar to that of early human settlements at the time of the birth of agriculture. By using high-throughput 16S rDNA sequencing and biochemical analyses, we found significant differences in gut microbiota between the two groups. BF children showed a significant enrichment in Bacteroidetes and depletion in Firmicutes (P < 0.001), with a unique abundance of bacteria from the genus Prevotella and Xylanibacter, known to contain a set of bacterial genes for cellulose and xylan hydrolysis, completely lacking in the EU children. In addition, we found significantly more short-chain fatty acids (P < 0.001) in BF than in EU children. Also, Enterobacteriaceae (Shigella and Escherichia) were significantly underrepresented in BF than in EU children (P < 0.05). We hypothesize that gut microbiota coevolved with the polysaccharide-rich diet of BF individuals, allowing them to maximize energy intake from fibers while also protecting them from inflammations and noninfectious colonic diseases. This study investigates and compares human intestinal microbiota from children characterized by a modern western diet and a rural diet, indicating the importance of preserving this treasure of microbial diversity from ancient rural communities worldwide.

Subfields: General Health Professions, Molecular Biology, Physiology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a8c334e5f048bb8185e23a21d13cfbacce06475b

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Citations in the corpus

The Impact of Diet and Lifestyle on Gut Microbiota and Human Health (2014, background): “The diversity of fecal microbes in children from rural Africa is greater than that of children of developed communities in the EU, as is the number of bacteria associated with breakdown of fiber [55], suggesting dietary”
Exploring the bovine rumen bacterial community from birth to adulthood (2013, background): “These differences were attributed to the different diets consumed by these children: the African diet is composed mainly of plant fiber, whereas the European diet is high in animal protein, sugar, starch and fat, but low in fiber (De Filippo et al., 2010).”
The composition of the gut microbiota throughout life, with an emphasis on early life (2015, background): “Vaginally delivered infants, but not infants born by C-section, shared a significantly higher proportion of gut microbiota 16S rRNA gene sequences with their own mother than with other mothers for up to 2 years of age, particularly within the Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes phyla (35).”
Reduced Incidence of Prevotella and Other Fermenters in Intestinal Microflora of Autistic Children (2013, background): “[46] suggested that suppression of pathogenic Escherichia/Shigella by Prevotella might result in a lower incidence of GI disorders among African children.”
Gut microbiome, obesity, and metabolic dysfunction. (2011, background): “Gut microbiota in rural Africa may allow individuals to maximize energy intake from fibers while protecting from inflammation and infection (47).”
A Guide to Enterotypes across the Human Body: Meta-Analysis of Microbial Community Structures in Human Microbiome Datasets (2013, methodology): “Samples with high Prevotella abundances have previously been observed in nonWestern human populations [6].”
Fiber and Prebiotics: Mechanisms and Health Benefits (2013, neutral): “) [15].”