Characterizing the stability of the gut microbiome is important to exploit it as a therapeutic target and diagnostic biomarker. We metagenomically and metatranscriptomically sequenced the faecal microbiomes of 308 participants in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. Participants provided four stool samples-one pair collected 24-72 h apart and a second pair ~6 months later. Within-person taxonomic and functional variation was consistently lower than between-person variation over time. In contrast, metatranscriptomic profiles were comparably variable within and between subjects due to higher within-subject longitudinal variation. Metagenomic instability accounted for ~74% of corresponding metatranscriptomic instability. The rest was probably attributable to sources such as regulation. Among the pathways that were differentially regulated, most were consistently over- or under-transcribed at each time point. Together, these results suggest that a single measurement of the faecal microbiome can provide long-term information regarding organismal composition and functional potential, but repeated or short-term measures may be necessary for dynamic features identified by metatranscriptomics.

中文翻译：

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成年男性队列中人类粪便微生物组的稳定性。

表征肠道微生物组的稳定性对于将其用作治疗靶标和诊断生物标志物很重要。我们在卫生专业人员跟进研究中对308名参与者的粪便微生物组进行了基因组和超转录组测序。参与者提供了四份粪便样本，一对样本相距24-72小时，第二对样本约6个月后收集。随着时间的推移，人际生物分类和功能变异始终低于人际变异。相反，由于较高的受试者内部纵向变化，组间转录组谱在受试者内和受试者之间具有可比性。元基因组不稳定性占相应的元转录组学不稳定性的约74％。其余的可能归因于法规等来源。在受到不同监管的途径中，在每个时间点，大多数都被一致地过度转录或转录不足。在一起，这些结果表明，粪便微生物组的单一测量可以提供有关生物组成和功能潜力的长期信息，但是对于通过转录组学鉴定的动态特征，可能需要重复或短期测量。