Characteristics of the gut microbiota in professional martial arts athletes: A comparison between different competition levels.
Recent evidence suggests that athletes have microbial features distinct from those of sedentary individuals. However, the characteristics of the gut microbiota in athletes competing at different levels have not been assessed. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the gut microbiome is sig...
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doaj-a18076bdf1934d47863f23083b6f584d2021-03-03T21:18:17ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032019-01-011412e022624010.1371/journal.pone.0226240Characteristics of the gut microbiota in professional martial arts athletes: A comparison between different competition levels.Ru LiangShu ZhangXiangji PengWanna YangYanwei XuPing WuJunhui ChenYongjiang CaiJiyuan ZhouRecent evidence suggests that athletes have microbial features distinct from those of sedentary individuals. However, the characteristics of the gut microbiota in athletes competing at different levels have not been assessed. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the gut microbiome is significantly different between higher-level and lower-level athletes. Faecal microbiota communities were analysed with hypervariable tag sequencing of the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene among 28 professional martial arts athletes, including 12 higher-level and 16 lower-level athletes. The gut microbial richness and diversity (the Shannon diversity index (p = 0.019) and Simpson diversity index (p = 0.001)) were significantly higher in the higher-level athletes than in the lower-level athletes. Moreover, the genera Parabacteroides, Phascolarctobacterium, Oscillibacter and Bilophila were enriched in the higher-level athletes, whereas Megasphaera was abundant in the lower-level athletes. Interestingly, the abundance of the genus Parabacteroides was positively correlated with the amount of time participants exercised during an average week. Further analysis of the functional prediction revealed that histidine metabolism and carbohydrate metabolism pathways were markedly over-represented in the gut microbiota of the higher-level athletes. Collectively, this study provides the first insight into the gut microbiota characteristics of professional martial arts athletes. The higher-level athletes had increased diversity and higher metabolic capacity of the gut microbiome for it may positively influence athletic performance.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226240 |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Ru Liang Shu Zhang Xiangji Peng Wanna Yang Yanwei Xu Ping Wu Junhui Chen Yongjiang Cai Jiyuan Zhou |
spellingShingle |
Ru Liang Shu Zhang Xiangji Peng Wanna Yang Yanwei Xu Ping Wu Junhui Chen Yongjiang Cai Jiyuan Zhou Characteristics of the gut microbiota in professional martial arts athletes: A comparison between different competition levels. PLoS ONE |
author_facet |
Ru Liang Shu Zhang Xiangji Peng Wanna Yang Yanwei Xu Ping Wu Junhui Chen Yongjiang Cai Jiyuan Zhou |
author_sort |
Ru Liang |
title |
Characteristics of the gut microbiota in professional martial arts athletes: A comparison between different competition levels. |
title_short |
Characteristics of the gut microbiota in professional martial arts athletes: A comparison between different competition levels. |
title_full |
Characteristics of the gut microbiota in professional martial arts athletes: A comparison between different competition levels. |
title_fullStr |
Characteristics of the gut microbiota in professional martial arts athletes: A comparison between different competition levels. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Characteristics of the gut microbiota in professional martial arts athletes: A comparison between different competition levels. |
title_sort |
characteristics of the gut microbiota in professional martial arts athletes: a comparison between different competition levels. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
series |
PLoS ONE |
issn |
1932-6203 |
publishDate |
2019-01-01 |
description |
Recent evidence suggests that athletes have microbial features distinct from those of sedentary individuals. However, the characteristics of the gut microbiota in athletes competing at different levels have not been assessed. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the gut microbiome is significantly different between higher-level and lower-level athletes. Faecal microbiota communities were analysed with hypervariable tag sequencing of the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene among 28 professional martial arts athletes, including 12 higher-level and 16 lower-level athletes. The gut microbial richness and diversity (the Shannon diversity index (p = 0.019) and Simpson diversity index (p = 0.001)) were significantly higher in the higher-level athletes than in the lower-level athletes. Moreover, the genera Parabacteroides, Phascolarctobacterium, Oscillibacter and Bilophila were enriched in the higher-level athletes, whereas Megasphaera was abundant in the lower-level athletes. Interestingly, the abundance of the genus Parabacteroides was positively correlated with the amount of time participants exercised during an average week. Further analysis of the functional prediction revealed that histidine metabolism and carbohydrate metabolism pathways were markedly over-represented in the gut microbiota of the higher-level athletes. Collectively, this study provides the first insight into the gut microbiota characteristics of professional martial arts athletes. The higher-level athletes had increased diversity and higher metabolic capacity of the gut microbiome for it may positively influence athletic performance. |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226240 |
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