Aim: The human gastrointestinal tract harbors diverse, abundant microbiota and Akkermansia muciniphila is involved in this community. The aim of this study is to characterize 16 new A. muciniphila 16S ribosomal RNA sequences selected from a metagenomic database from stools of patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel diseases and control (CTRLs) subjects by a phylogenetic approach. Materials & methods: A phylogenetic approach was used to study the genetic diversity and SNPs in 16 A. muciniphila 16S ribosomal RNA sequences from stools of 107 individuals, 36 of which were patients affected by IBS, 30 by inflammatory bowel disease and 41 were CTRLs. Results: Phylogenetic analysis confirmed the subdivision into different supported clusters. An increase of variability in IBS has been identified. Conclusion: The genetic variation combined to the relative abundance, contribute to the protective role of A. muciniphila. Phylogenesis represent an additional approach to investigate genetic variability.

Keywords:

Papers of special note have been highlighted as: • of interest; •• of considerable interest

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Vol. 14, No. 17

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Received 5 June 2019

Accepted 8 November 2019

Published online 18 December 2019

Published in print November 2019

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Supplementary data

To view the supplementary data that accompany this paper please visit the journal website at: www.futuremedicine.com/doi/suppl/10.2217/fmb-2019-0175

Author contributions

Conceptualization: A Lo Presti, F Del Chierico and M Ciccozzi; data curation: A Lo Presti, F Del Chierico and E Cella; formal analysis: A Lo Presti and F Del Chierico; funding acquisition: A Lo Presti; methodology: A Lo Presti, F Del Chierico, A Altomare and F Zorzi; project administration: A Lo Presti; resources: A Lo Presti, F Del Chierico, A Altomare, F Zorzi, L Putignani, MPL Guarino and G Monteleone; supervision: A Lo Presti, L Putignani, M Cicala, S Angeletti and M Ciccozzi; writing – original draft: A Lo Presti and F Del Chierico; writing – review and editing: A Lo Presti, F Del Chierico, A Altomare, F Zorzi, L Putignani, MPL Guarino, G Monteleone, M Cicala, S Angeletti and M Ciccozzi.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Italian Ministry of Health for the funding.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was supported by Ministry of Health (Ministero della Salute), Italy, project number WFR GR-2011-02350817 ‘Cross sectional study to evaluate the interactions between gut microflora and immune system at the cross-road of the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases and irritable bowel syndrome’. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

The study was performed in accordance with the principles of the declaration of Helsinki and approved by the local ethics committee, study protocol ‘Tor Vergata’ General Hospital GR-2011-02350817 Register of Experiments 44/15; campus prot. 24/15 PAR ComEt CBM. All patients signed an informed consent form.

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Exploring the genetic diversity of the 16S rRNA gene of Akkermansia muciniphila in IBD and IBS

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References