The upper respiratory tract microbiota of healthy adults is affected by Streptococcus pneumoniae carriage, smoking habits and contact with children
We investigated the composition of nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal microbiota of healthy adults focusing on the effect of pneumococcal carriage, smoking habits and contact with children. We designed a case-control study which included 12 individuals previously identified as pneumococcal carriers and 47 individuals previously identified as pneumococcal non-carriers. Three samples from each individual were analyzed. Samples were collected over a time period spanning a maximum of 6 months. V4 16S rRNA gene sequencing was done for nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal paired samples (177 each) and data were analyzed.