Comparative study of the gut microbiomes between Western and Indigenous cultures – Implications for health and disease

Abstract

The mammalian gut microbiome plays a critical role in multiple functions related to health and a large number of metabolic and chronic diseases/disorders. Recent studies have profiled the influence of lifestyles and dietary behavior by comparing the gut microbiome of populations with different cultural underpinnings. We aim to provide an overview of the studies that report the influence on the gut microbial composition of dietary and lifestyle patterns in different contexts such as Western industrialized countries and Indigenous cultures, and how this association may influence health and disease. An electronic search was performed on PubMed using defined search terms focused on the gut microbiome, diets, lifestyles, traditional/Indigenous populations, western/industrialized populations, human nutrition, disease, and health. Based on research articles profiling the gut microbiomes of healthy subjects from twelve human populations with different cultural backgrounds, dietary patterns, and lifestyles, we identified differentially enriched bacterial taxa. None of the taxa were found to be common to all the populations although taxa such as Prevotella was abundant in eight of the twelve populations. We also found additional independent evidence linking altered bacterial taxa to human health and disease outcomes, including ailments of the gastrointestinal tract such as Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative colitis.