Influence of travel on the gut microbiome of cricketers

The numerous changes and stresses experienced during travel have the potential to impact the gut microbiome. Furthermore, travel has been implicated in the spread of antibiotic resistance genes across continents, while animal models employed to investigate the consequences of dietary changes during travel demonstrated impacts on gut motility and microbiota composition. The possibility of gut microbiome-mediated negative impacts arising from travel, and associated consequences for peak performance, would be of particular concern for elite athletes. To this end, here, the gut microbiome of Irish cricketers during travel was characterised.Faecal samples were collected from male (N=14) and female (N=7) cricket players during the build-up to the 2016 Cricket World Cup. Baseline and post-travel samples were collected from all participants and subjected to 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Additionally, samples from a subset of participants (N=4), who provided samples at all time points, were analysed by shotgun metagenomic sequencing.Analysis revealed reductions in alpha diversity following travel, accompanied by shifts in the taxonomic profile of the gut microbiome. The functional potential of the gut microbiome was also altered following travel, with antibiotic resistance and virulence genes undergoing notable changes. This study identifies periods of extensive travel as instances during which the gut microbiome of elite athletes may be particularly susceptible to disruption.