Upper respiratory tract microbiota across the human lifespan: a nationwide Dutch population study.

We studied the microbial community composition of 3,104 saliva (younger than 10 years)/oropharynx (10 years and older) and 2,485 nasopharynx samples of 3,160 Dutch individuals 0-87 years of age (51 percent female), participating in a cross-sectional population-wide study (PIENTER-3) using 16S-rRNA sequencing. Additionally, we collected deep phenotypic data on host, environmental and health characteristics. The overall aim of the project was to i) characterise the URT microbiota of the general Dutch population across the lifespan, and ii) its association with host, environmental and health characteristics.