Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection can cause gastrointestinal symptoms in the patients, but the role of gut microbiota in SARS-CoV-2 infection remains unclear. Thus, in this study, we aim to investigate whether SARS-CoV-2 infection affects the composition and function of gut microbiota. In this study, we demonstrated for the first time that significant shifts in microbiome composition and function were appeared in both SARS-CoV-2-infected asymptomatic and symptomatic cases. The relative abundance of Candidatus_Saccharibacteria was significantly increased, whereas the levels of Fibrobacteres was remarkably reduced in SARS-CoV-2-infected cases. There was one bacterial species, Spirochaetes displayed the difference between patients and asymptomatic cases. On the genus level, Tyzzerella was the key species that remarkably increased in both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases. Analyses of genome annotations further revealed SARS-CoV-2 infection resulted in the significant ‘functional dysbiosis’ of gut microbiota, including metabolic pathway, regulatory pathway and biosynthesis of secondary metabolites etc. We also identified potential metagenomic markers to discriminate SARS-CoV-2-infected symptomatic and asymptomatic cases from healthy controls. These findings together suggest gut microbiota is of possible etiological and diagnostic importance for SARS-CoV-2 infection.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, gut microbiota, microbial community, metagenomic analysis, 【초록키워드】 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, coronavirus, SARS-COV-2 infection, Genome, Infection, diagnostic, severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus, Asymptomatic, Patient, pathway, Asymptomatic cases, gut microbiota, respiratory, patients, marker, secondary metabolites, gastrointestinal symptoms, Biosynthesis, Secondary Metabolite, acute respiratory syndrome, metabolic pathway, acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, symptomatic cases, healthy controls, infected cases, annotation, microbiome composition, bacterial species, regulatory pathway, Fibrobacteres, Gastrointestinal symptom, Affect, significantly increased, reduced, demonstrated, etiological, Fibrobactere, metagenomic, Spirochaete, symptomatic and asymptomatic, 【제목키워드】 signature, the SARS-CoV-2,