Gut microbial dysbiosis in young adults with obesity

Obesity has become a global epidemic as a high risk factor for type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Besides human genetics, our gut microbiome is another contributor to human obesity. Here we perform metagenome-wide association studies (MGWAS) on fecal samples from a case-control cohort including 95 Chinese young adults with obesity and 105 normal-weight controls, and 23 obese patients after weight-loss treatment. We discover and validate microbial species deregulated in obesity, and show the changes of gut microbial composition after weight-loss treatment.