Blastocystis Colonization Is Associated with Increased Diversity and Altered Gut Bacterial Communities in Healthy Malian Children

Aly Kodio , Drissa Coulibaly (1) , Abdoulaye Kassoum Koné , Salimata Konate (2) , Safiatou Doumbo , Abdoulaye Guindo , Fadi Bittar (3, 4) , Frederique Gouriet (3, 4) , Didier Raoult (3, 4) , Mahamadou Aly Thera , Stephane Ranque (5, 4)

1 Département d'Epidémiologie des Affections parasitaires, Malaria Research and training center Université de Bamako, Mali
2 USTTB - Université des Sciences, des Techniques et des Technologies de Bamako
3 MEPHI - Microbes évolution phylogénie et infections
4 IHU Marseille - Institut Hospitalier Universitaire Méditerranée Infection
5 VITROME - Vecteurs - Infections tropicales et méditerranéennes

Blastocystis is the most common protozoan colonizing the gut of vertebrates. It modulates the human digestive microbiota in the absence of inflammation and gastrointestinal disease. Although it has been associated with human diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease, its pathogenicity remains controversial. This study aimed to assess the influence of Blastocystis on the gut bacterial communities in healthy children. We conducted a cross-sectional study on 147 Blastocystis-colonized and 149 Blastocystis-noncolonized Malian children, with Blastocystis colonization assessed by real-time PCR and gut microbial communities characterized via 16S rRNA gene (Illumina MiSeq) sequencing and bioinformatics analysis. The gut microbiota diversity was higher in Blastocystis-colonized compared to Blastocystis-noncolonized children. The phyla Firmicutes, Elusimicrobia, Lentisphaerae, and Euryarchaeota were higher in Blastocystis-colonized children, whereas Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, unassigned bacteria, and Deinococcus–Thermus were higher in Blastocystis-noncolonized children. Moreover, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii (family Ruminococcaceae) and Roseburia sp. (family Lachnospiraceae) abundance was higher in Blastocystis-colonized children. We conclude that Blastocystis colonization is significantly associated with a higher diversity of the gut bacterial communities in healthy children, while it is not associated with the presence of potentially pathogenic bacteria in the human gut.

Mots clés: Blastocystis; healthy children; diversity; bacterial gut microbiota

Domaines: Bactériologie; Cardiologie et système cardiovasculaire; Maladies émergentes; Maladies infectieuses; Parasitologie; Virologie

Aly Kodio, Drissa Coulibaly, Abdoulaye Kassoum Koné, Salimata Konate, Safiatou Doumbo, et al.. Blastocystis Colonization Is Associated with Increased Diversity and Altered Gut Bacterial Communities in Healthy Malian Children. Microorganisms, 2019, 7 (12), pp.649. ⟨10.3390/microorganisms7120649⟩. ⟨hal-02454474⟩