Bacteriocin-producing gut isolates, recovered from the faecal microbiome of Irish athletes

Exercise and physical fitness reduce inflammation, fatigue, and aid overall health. Additionally, physical fitness has been shown to alter the community composition of the athlete's gut micro-biome, with previously proposed health-promoting taxa shown to be increased in active indi-viduals. Here, we investigate the antimicrobial potential of the athlete gut against two human gut pathogens using both in silico and in vitro methods. A total of 284 gut isolates with inhibitory activity against Clostridium difficile and/or Fusobacterium nucleatum were isolated and the most potent isolates were further characterised. Additionally the metagenomic data from the faecal samples was used to recover Metagenome Assembled Genomes (MAGs), and assessed for pres-ence of known bacteriocin gene clusters, where 339 potential sites were identified. This study highlights the potential of the athlete gut microbiome as a source of novel antimicrobial agents active against a variety of gut pathogens.