title: Diversity of Gut Microbiota Metabolic Pathways in 10 Pairs of Chinese Infant Twins.
abstract: Early colonization of gut microbiota in human gut is a complex process. It remains unclear when gut microbiota colonization occurs and how it proceeds. In order to study gut microbiota composition in human early life, the present study recruited 10 healthy pairs of twins, including five monozygotic (MZ) and five dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs, whose age ranged from 0 to 6 years old. 20 fecal samples from these twins were processed by shotgun metagenomic sequencing, and their averaged data outputs were generated as 2G per sample. We used MEGAN5 to perform taxonomic and functional annotation of the metagenomic data, and systematically analyzed those 20 samples, including Jaccard index similarity, principle component, clustering, and correlation analyses. Our findings indicated that within our study group: 1) MZ-twins share more microbes than DZ twins or non-twin pairs, 2) gut microbiota distribution is relatively stable at metabolic pathways level, 3) age represents the strongest factor that can account for variation in gut microbiota, and 4) a clear metabolic pathway shift can be observed, which speculatively occurs around the age of 1 year old. This research will serve as a base for future studies of gut microbiota-related disease research.
authors: Division of Gastroenterology, Shenzhen Children's Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
authors: Shaoming
authors: S
authors: Zhou
authors: Clinical Laboratory, Longgang Central Hospital of Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
authors: Ruihuan
authors: R
authors: Xu
authors: Shenzhen Following Precision Medical Research Institute, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
authors: Fusheng
authors: F
authors: He
authors: Division of psychology, Shenzhen Children's Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
authors: Jiaxiu
authors: J
authors: Zhou
authors: Shenzhen Imuno Biotech Co.,Ltd, Shenzhen, China.
authors: Yan
authors: Y
authors: Wang
authors: Division of Gastroenterology, Shenzhen Children's Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
authors: Jianli
authors: J
authors: Zhou
authors: Shenzhen Following Precision Medical Research Institute, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.|Shenzhen Imuno Biotech Co.,Ltd, Shenzhen, China.|Division of Neonatology, Children's Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, China.|Key Laboratory of Birth Defects, Children's Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
authors: Mingbang
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5989-5377
authors: M
authors: Wang
authors: Division of Neonatology, Children's Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, China.|Key Laboratory of Birth Defects, Children's Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, China.|Key Laboratory of Neonatal Diseases, Ministry of Health, Children's Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
authors: Wenhao
authors: W
authors: Zhou
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000378:metabolism; D044466:Asian People; D044822:Biodiversity; D002292:Carcinoma, Renal Cell / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D005260:Female; D000069196:Gastrointestinal Microbiome; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology; D008297:Male; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways; D054892:Metagenome; D017096:Prion Diseases / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology; D014429:Twins, Dizygotic; D014430:Twins, Monozygotic