Does colorectal cancer significantly influence the assembly of gut microbial communities?

ABSTRACT: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third commonest malignant tumor. Previous studies have revealed that the composition change of the human gut microbiome, measured by community diversity, is associated with the progression of CRC. However, a further question, whether or not the mechanism of community assembly and diversity maintenance of the gut microbiome is influenced by CRC has not been addressed. To address this question, we applied Hubbell's neutral theory for biodiversity to reanalyze the dataset from Wang et al.'s (2012) study of the gut microbiome sampled from 46 CRC patients and 56 healthy individuals. Our reanalysis presents two important findings. Firstly, our analysis demonstrated that only around 4% (4/102) samples (in total of both the CRC and control groups

SUBMITTER: Dai L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5493029 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature