Gut microbiota richness promotes its stability upon increased dietary fibre intake

A study¹ published in Environmental Microbiology in September 2015 showed how gut microbiota stability depend of its richness when individuals took high fiber diet. Using various methods to study the gut microbiome, we observed that higher microbiota richness was associated with higher microbiota stability upon increased dietary fibre intake. Metatranscriptomics analysis showed that numerous glycan metabolism were also modulated including carbohydrate active enzymes. Individual with higher richness and higher stability had higher diversity of short chain fatty acid comprising acetate, propionate and butyrate but also caproate and valerate compared to the lower richness microbiota.

In addition, this study showed that a simple food vegetable questionaire summarized into a vegetable diversity index could be predictive of gut microbiota richness. Gut microbiota richness should definitly be taken into account before any nutritional intervention.

• See also INRA Press release: An original study in healthy individuals: impact of a high-fibre diet on the gut microbiota