The human gut harbors trillions of microbes, which are extremely important to the health of the host. However, the effect of drinking water on gut microbiota has been poorly understood. In this study, we explored the response of BALB/c mice gut bacterial community (feces) to the different types of drinking water, including commercial bottled mineral water (MW), natural water (NW), purified water (PW) and tap water (TW). Feces were cultured with brain heart infusion broth dissolved in four types of drinking water. 16S rRNA gene analysis was performed. Our results reveal that the microbiota composition is different among culturing with four types of drinking water. As the culture time increases, the number of OTUs significantly decreased, except under the aerobic condition of MW. Under aerobic conditions on the 5th day, the considerable differences of alpha diversity index are found between MW and three others, and these are the most unique taxa in the MW group. Importantly, the LEfSe analysis discovers that the Bacteroidetes taxa dominate the differences between MW and the other water types. Our findings demonstrate that the mineral water as a culture medium may lead to a progressive increase of the gut microbiota diversity by providing the growth convenience to Bacteroidetes.

人的肠道内藏有数万亿微生物，这对于宿主的健康极为重要。然而，人们对饮用水对肠道菌群的影响知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们探讨了BALB / c小鼠肠道细菌群落（粪便）对不同类型饮用水的响应，包括商业瓶装矿泉水（MW），天然水（NW），纯净水（PW）和自来水（TW）。用溶解在四种类型饮用水中的脑心浸液培养粪便。进行16S rRNA基因分析。我们的结果表明，在用四种类型的饮用水进行培养时，微生物群的组成有所不同。随着培养时间的增加，除在有氧条件下的MW外，OTU的数量显着减少。在第5天有氧条件下，在MW和其他三个之间发现了alpha多样性指数的显着差异，这是MW组中最独特的分类单元。重要的是，LEfSe分析发现拟杆菌属在水和其他水类型之间的差异上占主导地位。我们的研究结果表明，矿泉水作为一种培养基，通过为拟杆菌的生长提供便利，可能导致肠道微生物区系的逐步增加。