Characterization of the fecal microbiota differs between age groups in Koreans.

Background/aims: Tens of trillions of microorganisms constitute the gut microbiota of the human body. The microbiota plays a critical role in maintaining host immunity and metabolism. Analyses of the gut microbial composition in Korea are limited to a few studies consisting of small sample sizes. To investigate the gut microbial community in a large sample of healthy Koreans, we analyzed the 16S ribosomal RNA of 4 representative bacterial genera , , , and .

Methods: A total of 378 DNA samples extracted from 164 infants and 214 adults were analyzed using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction.

Results: Analysis of 16S ribosomal RNA of 4 representative bacterial genera , , , and showed that the gut microbiota in infants had higher relative abundances of and than that in adults, which was dominated by and .

Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this was the first study evaluating the distinct characteristics of the microbial community of Korean infants and adults. The differences between the 2 populations suggest that external factors such as age, diet, and the environment are important contributing factors to the change in gut microbial composition during development.