The Gut Microbiota of Rural Papua New Guineans: Composition, Diversity Patterns, and Ecological Processes

• DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2015.03.049
• Publication Date: 2015-04-17T11:35:04Z
• Authors: Inés Martínez; James C. Stegen; Maria X. Maldonad...; A. Murat Eren; Peter M. Siba; Andrew R. Greenhill; Jens Walter
• Keywords: Metacommunity; Westernization; New guinea; Redress

Although recent research revealed an impact of westernization on diversity and composition the human gut microbiota, exact consequences metacommunity characteristics are insufficiently understood, underlying ecological mechanisms have not been elucidated. Here, we compared fecal microbiota adults from two non-industrialized regions in Papua New Guinea (PNG) with that United States (US) residents. Guineans harbor communities greater bacterial diversity, lower inter-individual variation, vastly different abundance profiles, lineages undetectable US A quantification processes govern community assembly identified dispersal as dominant process shapes microbiome PNG but US. These findings suggest alterations detected industrialized societies might arise modern lifestyle factors limiting dispersal, which has implications for health development strategies aimed to redress westernization.