Human bronchoalveolar lavage, oral wash, nasal swab and saline/reagent control microbiota 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing

No studies to date have examined the relationship within an individual between bacterial communities along sites of the upper aerodigestive tract. Our objective was to perform an intra-subject and inter-site analysis to determine the contribution of two upper mucosal sites (mouth and nose) as source communities for the bacterial microbiome of the lower sites (lungs and stomach). Oral wash, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), nasal swab, and gastric aspirate samples were collected from 28 healthy subjects.