Characterization of the oral microbiome in the diverse South African population by PacBio HiFi sequencing.

ABSTRACT: Mounting evidence supports population-specific variation in the microbiome. This study applied PacBio HiFi 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to profile the oral microbiome of 62 individuals (aged 18-55 years) from the four major South African population groups (Black, Coloured, Indian and White). Bioinformatics analysis was performed using QIIME2 with taxonomic classification based on the SILVA database. Across all groups, Firmicutes was the most dominant phylum (80.92%), followed by Proteobacteria (8.94%) and Bacteroidota (4.22%). A total of 236 genera and 376 species were identified. Veillonella was the most abundant genus (27.57%), followed by Streptococcus (25.08%) and Granulicatella (15.54%). Streptococcus (30.40%) and Veillonella (41.82%) were the most abundant in the Indian and Coloured

SUBMITTER: Govender P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12808187 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature