Eldermet001
ELDERMET: Gut microbiota as an indicator and agent of nutritional health in elderly Irish subjects
Alterations in the human intestinal microbiota are linked to  conditions including inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel  syndrome, and obesity. The microbiota also undergoes substantial  changes at the extremes of life, in infants and older people, the  ramifications of which are still being explored. We applied pyrosequencing  of over 40,000 16S rRNA gene V4 region amplicons per  subject to characterize the fecal microbiota in 161 subjects aged  65 y and older and 9 younger control subjects. The microbiota of  each individual subject constituted a unique profile that was  separable from all others. In 68% of the individuals, the microbiota  was dominated by phylum Bacteroides, with an average proportion  of 57% across all 161 baseline samples. Phylum Firmicutes had an  average proportion of 40%. The proportions of some phyla and  genera associated with disease or health also varied dramatically,  including Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Faecalibacteria. The  core microbiota of elderly subjects was distinct from that previously  established for younger adults, with a greater proportion of  Bacteroides spp. and distinct abundance patterns of Clostridium  groups. Analyses of 26 fecal microbiota datasets from 3-month  follow-up samples indicated that in 85% of the subjects, the microbiota  composition was more like the corresponding time-0 sample  than any other dataset. We conclude that the fecal microbiota of  the elderly shows temporal stability over limited time in the majority  of subjects but is characterized by unusual phylum proportions  and extreme variability.
ELDERMET is a DAFF-HRB national metagenomics initiative which aims to investigate gut microbiota as an indicator and agent for nutritional health in elderly Irish subjects. The intestinal microflora plays a pivotal role in human health and variations in the microflora effect health.