Stool sample Targeted loci environmental

Hereby we explored the prokaryotic diversity in 50 stool samples of IBS patients enrolled during the study RIBS/MIC/002/2010. Overall, the results showed two striking outcomes. The one has to do with the fluctuations occurring in some bacterial groups, while the second one is associated with the treatment effects which appear to cause very subtle or no changes in the overall composition of the microbiota compared to the individual observed variability. The results obtained from the high-throughput sequencing approach have been compared, with the real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) outcomes of a previously implemented approach, carried out on the same samples. Despite the inherent differences of the approaches used, concerning both application and outcome completeness, some important common conclusions were drawn and further observations about microbial ecology were made.