AUTHOR=Chew Charmaine , Barros Karina Vieira , Weffort Virginia Resende Silva , Maranhão Hélcio de Sousa , Laranjeira Marisa , Knol Jan , Roeselers Guus , de Morais Mauro Batista 

TITLE=Gut Microbiota of Young Children Living in Four Brazilian Cities

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pediatrics

VOLUME=Volume 8 - 2020

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pediatrics/articles/10.3389/fped.2020.573815

DOI=10.3389/fped.2020.573815

ISSN=2296-2360

ABSTRACT=There are several factors (not limited to) that alters the microbiome such as diet, geographical and other environmental influence. In Latin America, there has been lesser microbiome studies especially in young children. 
In this paper, we investigated the microbiota composition of toddlers in urban settings geographically separated within 4 states of Brazil using 16s RNA gene sequencing. We found alpha diversity to be similar despite living in different cities. Their profiles dominated by Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, resembled adult microbiota instead of European children of similar age. These findings suggest that inter-individual and nutrition induced differences were apparent in the fecal microbiota. We conclude that urban dietary pattern plays a larger role in influencing the gut microbiota composition compared to geographical differences.