Cited by 995Gut microbiota and healthNutrition, Genetics, and DiseaseNutritional Studies and Diet

Microbiome connections with host metabolism and habitual diet from 1,098 deeply phenotyped individuals

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Asnicar, Francesco, Berry, Sarah E., Valdes, Ana M., Nguyen, Long H., Piccinno, Gianmarco, Drew, David A., Leeming, Emily, Gibson, Rachel +31 more·2021·Nature Medicine

Abstract

The gut microbiome is shaped by diet and influences host metabolism; however, these links are complex and can be unique to each individual. We performed deep metagenomic sequencing of 1,203 gut microbiomes from 1,098 individuals enrolled in the Personalised Responses to Dietary Composition Trial (PREDICT 1) study, whose detailed long-term diet information, as well as hundreds of fasting and same-meal postprandial cardiometabolic blood marker measurements were available. We found many significant associations between microbes and specific nutrients, foods, food groups and general dietary indices, which were driven especially by the presence and diversity of healthy and plant-based foods. Microbial biomarkers of obesity were reproducible across external publicly available cohorts and in agreement with circulating blood metabolites that are indicators of cardiovascular disease risk. While some microbes, such as Prevotella copri and Blastocystis spp., were indicators of favorable postprandial glucose metabolism, overall microbiome composition was predictive for a large panel of cardiometabolic blood markers including fasting and postprandial glycemic, lipemic and inflammatory indices. The panel of intestinal species associated with healthy dietary habits overlapped with those associated with favorable cardiometabolic and postprandial markers, indicating that our large-scale resource can potentially stratify the gut microbiome into generalizable health levels in individuals without clinically manifest disease. Analyses from the gut microbiome of over 1,000 individuals from the PREDICT 1 study, for which detailed long-term diet information as well as hundreds of fasting and same-meal postprandial cardiometabolic blood marker measurements are available, unveil new associations between specific gut microbes, dietary habits and cardiometabolic health.

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  • Microbiome-mediated links between diet and health have been prevalently investigated by considering the role of the abiotic components of foods.

    “Microbiome-mediated links between diet and health have been prevalently investigated by considering the role of the abiotic components of foods. 35-41”

    From Unexplored microbial diversity from 2,500 food metagenomes and links with the human microbiome. (2024) · cites this paper as [38]

    The Discussion (page not provided) says the study highlights a need to look beyond nutrients and single foods in diet–microbiome research, supporting the idea that those aspects have received attention. It does not establish that research has predominantly considered foods’ abiotic components rather than their biotic components. (LLM, conf=0.72)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Presence of Ruminococcus gnavus as a biomarker of nonresponders in PRIMM-UK is in line with multiple reports of its association with poor cardiometabolic health and several diseases.

    “whereas the presence of Ruminococcus gnavus as a biomarker of nonresponders in PRIMM-UK is in line with multiple reports of its association with poor cardiometabolic health20 and several diseases24–26.”
  • The gut microbiome is unique in each individual, even when considering identical twins.

    “The gut microbiome is unique in each individual, even when considering identical twins20,35”
  • The human gut microbiome is influenced by diet and medication use.

    “The human gut microbiome is itself shaped by a wide variety of environmental exposures, including diet (8, 9) and medication use (10–13)”
  • The five PFS ≥12-associated species represent fiber degrading taxa capable of short chain fatty acid (SCFA) synthesis that has been linked to plant-based diets.

    “These five species represent fiber degrading taxa capable of short chain fatty acid (SCFA) synthesis that has been linked to plant-based diets12,23,24.”

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Authors
Asnicar, F., Berry, S. E., Valdes, A. M., Nguyen, L. H., Piccinno, G., Drew, D. A., Leeming, E., Gibson, R., Le Roy, C., Khatib, H. A., Francis, L., Mazidi, M., Mompeo, O., Valles-Colomer, M., Tett, A., Beghini, F., Dubois, L., Bazzani, D., Thomas, A. M., Mirzayi, C., Khleborodova, A., Oh, S., Hine, R., Bonnett, C., Capdevila, J., Danzanvilliers, S., Giordano, F., Geistlinger, L., Waldron, L., Davies, R., Hadjigeorgiou, G., Wolf, J., Ordovás, J. M., Gardner, C., Franks, P. W., Chan, A. T., Huttenhower, C., Spector, T. D., & Segata, N.
Affiliations
  • University of Trento (IT)
  • King's College London (GB)
  • University of Nottingham (GB)
  • Harvard University (US)
  • ZOE (United Kingdom) (GB)
  • City University of New York (US)
  • Tufts University (US)
  • Stanford University (US)
  • Broad Institute (US)
Corresponding author
  • Berry, Sarah E.
  • Segata, Nicola
Venue
Nature Medicine
Published
2021-01-11
Volume
27
Issue
2
Pages
321-332
ISSN
  • 1078-8956 (ISSN-L)
  • 1546-170X
OpenAlex
W3118724893
Cited by
995
References
95
Citations by year
2026: 164 · 2025: 188 · 2024: 202 · 2023: 175 · 2022: 179 · 2021: 83 · 2012: 1
FWCI
51.06
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Research Portal (King's College London) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (acceptedVersion)
  • Repository@Nottingham (University of Nottingham) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
  • Repository@Nottingham (University of Nottingham) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Iris (University of Trento) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Lund University Publications (Lund University) (submittedVersion)
  • Repositori digital de la UPF (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Massachusetts General Hospital
  • Wellcome Trust (212904, 212904/Z/18/Z, MR/M016560/1, 212904/Z/18/)
  • Crohn's and Colitis Foundation (563526, 690389)
  • National Institute for Health and Care Research (NF-SI-0507-10228, MR/M016560/1, NF-SI-0514-10027)
  • British Heart Foundation (MR/M016560/1)
  • King's College London
  • European Commission (825410, 818368, MR/M016560/1, 212904/Z/18/Z)
  • Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca (H2020, RBFR13EWWI_001)
  • Novo Nordisk
  • Vetenskapsrådet
  • National Institutes of Health (1u01ca230551-01a1)
  • Horizon 2020 Framework Programme (MASTER-818368, OncoBiome 825410, 818368, 825410)
  • Medical Research Council (MR/N030125/1, 212904/Z/18/Z, MR/N01183X/1, MR/M016560/1)
  • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
  • National Cancer Institute (U01 CA230551, R01CA230551)
  • National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (K23DK125838, P30DK043351)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Nutrition, Genetics, and Disease
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Nutritional Studies and Diet
Keywords
gut microbiota, host metabolism, diet, cardiometabolic health, postprandial blood glucose, postprandial lipemia, inflammation, obesity biomarkers, Prevotella copri, Blastocystis, plant-based diet, microbial biomarkers, cardiovascular risk, blood metabolites
MeSH terms
Gastrointestinal Microbiome, Adult, Blood Glucose, Child, Diet, Fasting, Feeding Behavior, Female, Food Microbiology, Glucose, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Biomarkers, Blastocystis, Prevotella, Postprandial Period, Metagenome, High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing, Microbiota

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