1. IDDF2021-ABS-0150 Influence of ethnicity on the gut microbiota of singaporean and malaysian communities
- Author
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Jeremy Fung Yen Lim, Tin Tin Su, Jonathan Wei Jie Lee, Chun Wie Chong, Jia Pei Ho, Kai Yee Toh, Jacky Dwiyanto, and Sadequr Rahman
- Subjects
biology ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Ethnic group ,Disease ,Gut flora ,biology.organism_classification ,Country of origin ,language.human_language ,Indigenous ,Geography ,Multiculturalism ,language ,Ordination ,Demography ,Malay ,media_common - Abstract
Background Singapore and Malaysia are neighbouring countries with similar ethnic make-up: Chinese, Indian, and Malays. However, Singapore is a high-income economy while Malaysia is a middle-income economy. Such a difference has resulted in some levels of dichotomy in diet and lifestyles. In this study, we sought to investigate the gut-ethnic variation across the two neighbouring countries with varying levels of economic development. Methods A total of 439 relatively healthy Malaysian (n=190) and Singaporean (n=249) adults (>18) were included, comprising Chinese (n=240), Indian (n=74), Malay (n=40), and the indigenous Jakun community (n=85). The sequences were processed with DADA2 and annotated using the SILVA database. Results Country of origin explained the most variation in the gut microbiota (PERMANOVA, Pseudo-F=80.798, R2=0.156, p=0.001; IDDF2021-ABS-0150 Figure 1. Ordination). Importantly, ethnicity was still significantly associated with the gut microbiota even after adjusting for the country, age and sex (PERMANOVA, Pseudo-F=4.206, R2=0.019, p=0.001). Several taxa were found to be differentially abundant across ethnicity (ANCOM-BC, q Conclusions Gut-ethnic differences persist across geographical regions, which was likely due to similar lifestyle and cultural practices by individuals sharing similar ancestry. These signals provide potential biomarkers on the role of the gut microbiota in the aetiology of the unequal disease burdens affecting the different ethnic groups in this multicultural region. more...
- Published
- 2021
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