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Abstract: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurological disorder characterized by rigidity, bradykinesia and tremor. Several genetic and environmental causes of PD are known, and there is emerging evidence of the possible contribution of the gut microbiome to the disease onset, severity, and response to therapy. While previous research has shown several differences in the microbiome of PD patients under therapy as opposed to healthy controls, few prospective studies have included drug-naïve patients. In order to evaluate the gut microbiome composition prior to therapy initiation, we collected and performed 16S rRNA gene sequencing of the stool samples from 49 drug-naïve PD patients and compared them to 34 diet and lifestyle-matched controls from the Croatian population (GiOPARK Project). While no significant alpha diversity difference was observed between the patients and controls, the differential relative abundance analysis showed an increase in Bacteroides fluxus, B. interstinalis, B. eggerthii, and Dielma fastidiosa in the drug-naïve PD patients compared to controls, while Alistipes, Barnesiella and Dialister spp. were decreased in patients compared to controls. Despite preserved overall diversity, these changes may indicate early microbial dysbiosis and represent a foundation for future studies exploring microbiome changes across disease progression and treatment.
Keywords: Parkinson’s disease, neurological disorder, gut microbiome, microbial diversity, microbial dysbiosis
Published in DiRROS: 23.02.2026; Views: 412; Downloads: 211
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Abstract: Research on marine microbial communities is growing, but studies are hard to compare because of variation in seawater sampling protocols. To help researchers in the inter-comparison of studies that use different seawater sampling methodologies, as well as to help them design future sampling campaigns, we developed the EuroMarine Open Science Exploration initiative (EMOSE). Within the EMOSE framework, we sampled thousands of liters of seawater from a single station in the NW Mediterranean Sea (Service d'Observation du Laboratoire Arago [SOLA], Banyuls-sur-Mer), during one single day. The resulting dataset includes multiple seawater processing approaches, encompassing different material-type kinds of filters (cartridge membrane and flat membrane), three different size fractionations (>0.22 µm, 0.22–3 µm, 3–20 µm and >20 µm), and a number of different seawater volumes ranging from 1 L up to 1000 L. We show that the volume of seawater that is filtered does not have a significant effect on prokaryotic and protist diversity, independently of the sequencing strategy. However, there was a clear difference in alpha and beta diversity between size fractions and between these and “whole water” (with no pre-fractionation). Overall, we recommend care when merging data from datasets that use filters of different pore size, but we consider that the type of filter and volume should not act as confounding variables for the tested sequencing strategies. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a publicly available dataset effectively allows for the clarification of the impact of marine microbiome methodological options across a wide range of protocols, including large-scale variations in sampled volume.
Keywords: marine microbiome, standardized sampling, inter-comparison, amplicon sequencing, microbial diversity, seawater sampling
Published in DiRROS: 12.07.2024; Views: 1240; Downloads: 1010
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