Indigenous infants in remote Australia retain an ancestral gut microbiome despite encroaching Westernization

Abstract

Studies of traditional Indigenous compared to 'Western' gut microbiomes are underrepresented, and lacking in young children, limiting knowledge of early-life microbiomes in different cultural contexts. Here we analyze the gut metagenomes of 50 Indigenous Australian infants (median age <one year) living remotely with variable access to Western foods, compared to age- and sex-matched non-Indigenous infants living in urban Australia. Indigenous infants had greater alpha diversity and significant differences in bacterial beta diversity, with 114 species and 38 genera differing in abundance. Indigenous infants almost exclusively had higher carriage of Megaspaera, Streptococcus, Caecibacter, Parolsenella and Prevotella species, and markedly higher numbers of gut viruses and fungi. Bifidobacteria ssp. were dominant in Indigenous infants. Despite encroaching Westernisation, the gut microbiome of Indigenous infants retains key features of traditional societies worldwide, attesting to the dominant influence of remote environment and traditional lifestyle in maintaining microbiome diversity.