Meta-analysis reveals obesity associated gut microbial alteration patterns and reproducible contributors of functional shift.

The majority of cohort-specific studies associating gut microbiota with obesity are often contradictory; thus, the replicability of the signature remains questionable. Moreover, the species that drive obesity-associated functional shifts and their replicability remain unexplored. Thus, we aimed to address these questions by analyzing gut microbial metagenome sequencing data to develop an in-depth understanding of obese host-gut microbiota interactions using 3329 samples (Obese,  = 1494; Control,  = 1835) from 17 different countries, including both 16S rRNA gene and metagenomic sequence data.