Stool consistency is strongly associated with gut microbiota richness and composition, enterotypes and bacterial growth rates

Study information

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study design

cross-sectional observational, not case-control

Citation

PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.

26069274

DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.

10.1136/gutjnl-2015-309618

URI

Authors

Vandeputte D, Falony G, Vieira-Silva S, Tito RY, Joossens M, Raes J

Journal

Gut

Year

2016

Keywords:

INTESTINAL BACTERIA, INTESTINAL MICROBIOLOGY

OBJECTIVE: The assessment of potentially confounding factors affecting colon microbiota composition is essential to the identification of robust microbiome based disease markers. Here, we investigate the link between gut microbiota variation and stool consistency using Bristol Stool Scale classification, which reflects faecal water content and activity, and is considered a proxy for intestinal colon transit time. DESIGN: Through 16S rDNA Illumina profiling of faecal samples of 53 healthy women, we evaluated associations between microbiome richness, Bacteroidetes:Firmicutes ratio, enterotypes, and genus abundance with self-reported, Bristol Stool Scale-based stool consistency. Each sample's microbiota growth potential was calculated to test whether transit time acts as a selective force on gut bacterial growth rates. RESULTS: Stool consistency strongly correlates with all known major microbiome markers. It is negatively correlated with species richness, positively associated to the Bacteroidetes:Firmicutes ratio, and linked to Akkermansia and Methanobrevibacter abundance. Enterotypes are distinctly distributed over the BSS-scores. Based on the correlations between microbiota growth potential and stool consistency scores within both enterotypes, we hypothesise that accelerated transit contributes to colon ecosystem differentiation. While shorter transit times can be linked to increased abundance of fast growing species in Ruminococcaceae-Bacteroides samples, hinting to a washout avoidance strategy of faster replication, this trend is absent in Prevotella-enterotyped individuals. Within this enterotype adherence to host tissue therefore appears to be a more likely bacterial strategy to cope with washout. CONCLUSIONS: The strength of the associations between stool consistency and species richness, enterotypes and community composition emphasises the crucial importance of stool consistency assessment in gut metagenome-wide association studies.

Experiment 1

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Svetlana up on 2025-3-25

Curated date: 2025/03/18

Curator: Francisca

Revision editor(s): Francisca

Subjects

Location of subjects: Belgium

Host species Species from which microbiome was sampled. Contact us to have more species added.: Homo sapiens

Body site Anatomical site where microbial samples were extracted from according to the Uber Anatomy Ontology: Feces Cow dung,Cow pat,Droppings,Dung,Excrement,Excreta,Faeces,Fecal material,Fecal matter,Fewmet,Frass,Guano,Matières fécales@fr,Merde@fr,Ordure,Partie de la merde@fr,Piece of shit,Porción de mierda@es,Portion of dung,Portion of excrement,Portion of faeces,Portion of fecal material,Portion of fecal matter,Portion of feces,Portion of guano,Portion of scat,Portionem cacas,Scat,Spoor,Spraint,Stool,Teil der fäkalien@de,Feces,feces

Condition The experimental condition / phenotype studied according to the Experimental Factor Ontology: Abnormal stool composition Abnormal faeces composition,Abnormal feces composition,Abnormal stool composition,abnormal stool composition

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies: Decreasing stool consistency in Total Dataset

Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies: Increasing stool consistency in Total Dataset

Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group: This group represents individuals with altered gut microbiota composition linked to fast intestinal transit in the Total Dataset.

Antibiotics exclusion Number of days without antibiotics usage (if applicable) and other antibiotics-related criteria used to exclude participants (if any): 3 months

Lab analysis

Sequencing type: 16S

16S variable region One or more hypervariable region(s) of the bacterial 16S gene: V4

Sequencing platform Manufacturer and experimental platform used for quantifying microbial abundance: Illumina

Statistical Analysis

Data transformation Data transformation applied to microbial abundance measurements prior to differential abundance testing (if any).: relative abundances

Statistical test: Spearman Correlation

Significance threshold p-value or FDR threshold used for differential abundance testing (if any): 0.1

MHT correction Have statistical tests be corrected for multiple hypothesis testing (MHT)?: Yes

Signature 2

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Curated date: 2025/03/21

Curator: Francisca

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Source: Table 1

Description: Correlation between stool consistency (Bristol Stool Scale) and differentially abundant gut microbiota genera.

Abundance in Group 1: decreased abundance in Increasing stool consistency in Total Dataset

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Methanosphaera
Odoribacter
Oxalobacter
Methanobrevibacter
Akkermansia
Butyricimonas

Revision editor(s): Francisca

Experiment 2

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Curated date: 2025/03/22

Curator: Francisca

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Differences from previous experiment shown

Subjects

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies: Decreasing stool consistency in Ruminococcaceae-Bacteroides enterotype

Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies: Increasing stool consistency in Ruminococcaceae-Bacteroides enterotype

Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group: This group represents individuals with altered gut microbiota composition linked to fast intestinal transit in the RB enterotype.