The Dominant Role of Diet on Gut Microbiota: Comparative Study in Children from Europe and Rural Africa

Bacteria in our gut depend on our diet just as our health depends on their metabolism. We compared the fecal microbiota and the metabolome of 15 European children (EU) with that of 14 children from a rural African village (Burkina Faso, BF), where the diet is pretty much the same as that of early human settlements at the time of the birth of agriculture. The 16S ribosomal RNA sequences of BF microbiota showed significant enrichment in Bacteroidetes and depletion in Firmicutes, hypothesizing a coevolution with BF children's polysaccharide-rich diet, allowing them to maximize energy intake from indigestible components. The correlation between diet, differences in microbiota and production of short-chain fatty acids important for gut health presented are the first comparison between human western and ancestral intestinal microflora.