Bioinformatics Seminar
Time: 11AM
Venue: Zoom Webinar
4 May 2021
The gut mycobiome during pregnancy in women with Type 1 diabetes.
Alexandra Roth-SchulzeWEHI Bioinformatics
Studies of the human microbiome have focused almost entirely on its bacterial composition. The fungal component, the mycobiome, has not been well studied, limiting our ability to understand the role of fungi, and their potential interactions with bacteria, in health and disease. In type 1 diabetes, gut bacterial diversity is reported to be decreased along with a decrease in the relative abundance of potentially beneficial bacteria. Fungal infections are more prevalent in type 1 diabetes but the mycobiome has not been characterized in this disorder. Here we used amplicon- based ITS sequencing to characterize the mycobiome in 162 fecal samples collected from 70 pregnant women with and without type 1 diabetes across pregnancy. Women with T1D exhibited an increased abundance of the genus Saccharomyces. A higher abundance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae was associated with a lower abundance of potentially beneficial bacteria including Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Eubacterium ramulus and Eubacterium ventriosum. Women with T1D had higher concentrations of fecal calprotectin, a marker of intestinal inflammation, higher concentrations of serum intestinal fatty acid binding protein, a marker of intestinal barrier integrity, and higher levels of antibodies to Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We conclude that pregnant women with T1D have an altered gut mycobiome, associated with evidence of low-grade intestinal inflammation.