Cited by 7,823Gut microbiota and healthOral microbiology and periodontitis researchInfant Nutrition and Health

A core gut microbiome in obese and lean twins

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Turnbaugh, Peter J., Hamady, Micah, Yatsunenko, Tanya, Cantarel, Brandi L., Duncan, Alexis, Ley, Ruth E., Sogin, Mitchell L., Jones, William J. +7 more·2009·Nature

Abstract

The human distal gut harbours a vast ensemble of microbes (the microbiota) that provide important metabolic capabilities, including the ability to extract energy from otherwise indigestible dietary polysaccharides. Studies of a few unrelated, healthy adults have revealed substantial diversity in their gut communities, as measured by sequencing 16S rRNA genes, yet how this diversity relates to function and to the rest of the genes in the collective genomes of the microbiota (the gut microbiome) remains obscure. Studies of lean and obese mice suggest that the gut microbiota affects energy balance by influencing the efficiency of calorie harvest from the diet, and how this harvested energy is used and stored. Here we characterize the faecal microbial communities of adult female monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs concordant for leanness or obesity, and their mothers, to address how host genotype, environmental exposure and host adiposity influence the gut microbiome. Analysis of 154 individuals yielded 9,920 near full-length and 1,937,461 partial bacterial 16S rRNA sequences, plus 2.14 gigabases from their microbiomes. The results reveal that the human gut microbiome is shared among family members, but that each person's gut microbial community varies in the specific bacterial lineages present, with a comparable degree of co-variation between adult monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs. However, there was a wide array of shared microbial genes among sampled individuals, comprising an extensive, identifiable 'core microbiome' at the gene, rather than at the organismal lineage, level. Obesity is associated with phylum-level changes in the microbiota, reduced bacterial diversity and altered representation of bacterial genes and metabolic pathways. These results demonstrate that a diversity of organismal assemblages can nonetheless yield a core microbiome at a functional level, and that deviations from this core are associated with different physiological states (obese compared with lean).

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  • The composition of the gut microbiota is altered in animal models of obesity and subjects with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes compared with controls.

    “Compelling evidence have shown that the composition of the gut microbiota is altered in animal models of obesity and subjects with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes compared with controls (182–186).”

    From The Role of Short-Chain Fatty Acids From Gut Microbiota in Gut-Brain Communication (2020) · cites this paper as [182]

    The passage labeled Abstract (page unavailable) reports altered gut microbiota in obese versus lean people and says the findings agree with previous work in mice. It does not address subjects with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes, so it supports only the obesity-related part of the citing sentence. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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  • Altered microbiota composition may contribute to obesity and T2DM, and correction by antibiotics, probiotics or prebiotics may improve the disease condition.

    “An altered microbiota composition may also contribute to obesity243, 244 as well as to T2DM245, 246, 247 and ‘correction' by antibiotics,248 probiotics249 or prebiotics, the last of which causing a short-chain FFA-stimulated increase in GLP-1,250 may improve the disease condition.251”

    From Pancreatic regulation of glucose homeostasis. (2016) · cites this paper as [244]

  • Chronic autoimmune inflammatory diseases such as celiac disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity are associated with intestinal dysbiosis.

    “Chronic autoimmune inflammatory diseases, including celiac disease,17 type 2 diabetes18 and obesity19 are associated with intestinal dysbiosis.”
  • Body fat percentage and mass are highly associated with gut microbiota composition.

    “In addition, in the study of Bressa et al. the sedentary group had significantly higher body fat percentage and mass (Bressa et al., 2017), traits known to be highly associated with gut microbiota composition (Turnbaugh et al., 2009).”
  • Gut microbiota composition is highly associated with weight and body composition.

    “Due to that the gut microbiota composition is known to be highly associated with weight and body composition (Turnbaugh et al., 2009)”

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Authors
Turnbaugh, P. J., Hamady, M., Yatsunenko, T., Cantarel, B. L., Duncan, A., Ley, R. E., Sogin, M. L., Jones, W. J., Roe, B. A., Affourtit, J. P., Egholm, M., Henrissat, B., Heath, A. C., Knight, R., & Gordon, J. I.
Affiliations
  • Washington University in St. Louis (US)
  • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
  • Marine Biological Laboratory (US)
  • University of South Carolina (US)
  • University of Oklahoma (US)
  • University of Colorado Boulder (US)
Corresponding author
Gordon, Jeffrey I.
Venue
Nature
Published
2008-11-30
Volume
457
Issue
7228
Pages
480-484
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
OpenAlex
W2149573313
Cited by
7,823
References
35
Citations by year
2026: 186 · 2025: 277 · 2024: 400 · 2023: 417 · 2022: 507 · 2021: 601 · 2020: 628 · 2019: 612 · 2018: 570 · 2017: 527 · 2016: 553 · 2015: 511 · 2014: 491 · 2013: 444 · 2012: 388
FWCI
96.01
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation (0430724)
  • W. M. Keck Foundation
  • Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America
  • University of Oklahoma
  • Crohn's and Colitis Foundation
  • National Institutes of Health (UL1TR000448)
  • National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (K05AA017688, R01AA009022, AA 09022)
  • National Human Genome Research Institute
  • National Institute of General Medical Sciences (T32GM065103)
  • National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (P01DK078669, DK78669, P30DK056341)
  • National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (P50ES012742, ES012742)
  • National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
  • Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD049024, R01HD049024)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
  • Health Sciences › Dentistry › Periodontics › Oral microbiology and periodontitis research
  • Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Infant Nutrition and Health
Keywords
gut microbiota, core microbiome, obesity, monozygotic twins, dizygotic twins, fecal microbiota, carbohydrate metabolism, host genotype, maternal microbiota, 16S rRNA gene sequencing, microbial diversity, energy balance, host-microbe interactions, host-microbe coevolution
MeSH terms
Adult, Africa, Environment, Europe, Feces, Female, Genotype, Humans, Missouri, Molecular Sequence Data, Mothers, Obesity, RNA, Ribosomal, 16S, Thinness, Twins, Dizygotic, Twins, Monozygotic, Gastrointestinal Tract, Biodiversity, Metagenome

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