Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
Genetic Heritage Group, Program in Biology, New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Microbiome. 2024 Nov 4;12(1):228. doi: 10.1186/s40168-024-01941-7.
Lifestyle plays an important role in shaping the gut microbiome. However, its contributions to the oral microbiome remain less clear, due to the confounding effects of geography and methodology in investigations of populations studied to date. Furthermore, while the oral microbiome seems to differ between foraging and industrialized populations, we lack insight into whether transitions to and away from agrarian lifestyles shape the oral microbiota. Given the growing interest in so-called "vanishing microbiomes" potentially being a risk factor for increased disease prevalence in industrialized populations, it is important that we distinguish lifestyle from geography in the study of microbiomes across populations.
Here, we investigate salivary microbiomes of 63 Nepali individuals representing a spectrum of lifestyles: foraging, subsistence farming (individuals that transitioned from foraging to farming within the last 50 years), agriculturalists (individuals that have transitioned to farming for at least 300 years), and industrialists (expatriates that immigrated to the USA within the last 20 years). We characterize the role of lifestyle in microbial diversity, identify microbes that differ between lifestyles, and pinpoint specific lifestyle factors that may be contributing to differences in the microbiomes across populations. Contrary to prevailing views, when geography is controlled for, oral microbiome alpha diversity does not differ significantly across lifestyles. Microbiome composition, however, follows the gradient of lifestyles from foraging through agrarianism to industrialism, supporting the notion that lifestyle indeed plays a role in the oral microbiome. Relative abundances of several individual taxa, including Streptobacillus and an unclassified Porphyromonadaceae genus, also mirror lifestyle. Finally, we identify specific lifestyle factors associated with microbiome composition across the gradient of lifestyles, including smoking and grain sources.
Our findings demonstrate that by studying populations within Nepal, we can isolate an important role of lifestyle in determining oral microbiome composition. In doing so, we highlight the potential contributions of several lifestyle factors, underlining the importance of carefully examining the oral microbiome across lifestyles to improve our understanding of global microbiomes. Video Abstract.
生活方式在塑造肠道微生物群方面起着重要作用。然而，由于迄今为止对所研究人群的调查存在地理和方法上的混杂效应，其对口腔微生物群的贡献仍不明确。此外，虽然觅食和工业化人群的口腔微生物群似乎存在差异，但我们缺乏关于向农耕和游牧生活方式转变以及远离农耕生活方式是否会塑造口腔微生物群的深入了解。鉴于人们对所谓的“正在消失的微生物群”可能成为工业化人群中疾病发病率增加的一个风险因素越来越感兴趣，因此在对不同人群的微生物群进行研究时，将生活方式与地理区分开来是很重要的。
在这里，我们研究了 63 名尼泊尔个体的唾液微生物群，这些个体代表了一系列的生活方式：觅食、自给农业（在过去 50 年内从觅食过渡到农业的个体）、农民（至少过渡到农业 300 年的个体）和工业家（在过去 20 年内移民到美国的侨民）。我们描述了生活方式在微生物多样性中的作用，确定了在生活方式之间存在差异的微生物，并确定了可能导致不同人群的微生物群存在差异的特定生活方式因素。与流行观点相反，当控制地理因素时，口腔微生物群的 alpha 多样性在生活方式之间没有显著差异。然而，微生物群落组成沿着从觅食到农业到工业化的生活方式梯度变化，这支持了生活方式确实在口腔微生物群中起作用的观点。包括 Streptobacillus 和未分类的 Porphyromonadaceae 属在内的几个个体分类群的相对丰度也反映了生活方式。最后，我们确定了与生活方式梯度上的微生物群落组成相关的特定生活方式因素，包括吸烟和谷物来源。
我们的研究结果表明，通过研究尼泊尔境内的人群，我们可以分离出生活方式在决定口腔微生物群组成方面的重要作用。通过这样做，我们强调了几个生活方式因素的潜在贡献，突出了在不同生活方式下仔细检查口腔微生物群的重要性，以提高我们对全球微生物群的理解。
