Expanding the human gut microbiome atlas of Africa.

ABSTRACT: Population studies provide insights into the interplay between the gut microbiome and geographical, lifestyle, genetic and environmental factors. However, low- and middle-income countries, in which approximately 84% of the world's population lives¹, are not equitably represented in large-scale gut microbiome research^2-4. Here we present the AWI-Gen 2 Microbiome Project, a cross-sectional gut microbiome study sampling 1,801 women from Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. By engaging with communities that range from rural and horticultural to post-industrial and urban informal settlements, we capture a far greater breadth of the world's population diversity. Using shotgun metagenomic sequencing, we identify taxa with geographic and lifestyle associations, includ

SUBMITTER: Maghini DG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11839480 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature