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The Pioneer 100 Wellness Project involved quantitatively profiling 108 participants' molecular physiology over time, including genomes, gut microbiomes, blood metabolomes, blood proteomes, clinical chemistries, and data from wearable devices. Here, we present a longitudinal analysis focused specifically around the Pioneer 100 gut microbiomes. We distinguished a subpopulation of individuals with reduced gut diversity, elevated relative abundance of the genus Prevotella, and reduced levels of the genus Bacteroides. We found that the relative abundances of Bacteroides and Prevotella were significantly correlated with certain serum metabolites, including omega-6 fatty acids. Primary dimensions in distance-based redundancy analysis of clinical chemistries explained 18.5% of the variance in bacterial community composition, and revealed a Bacteroides/Prevotella dichotomy aligned with inflammation and dietary markers. Finally, longitudinal analysis of gut microbiome dynamics within individuals showed that direct transitions between Bacteroides-dominated and Prevotella-dominated communities were rare, suggesting the presence of a barrier between these states. One implication is that interventions seeking to transition between Bacteroides- and Prevotella-dominated communities will need to identify permissible paths through ecological state-space that circumvent this apparent barrier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do bacterial taxa demonstrate clear endemism, like macroorganisms, or can one site's bacterial community recapture the total phylogenetic diversity of the world's oceans? Here we compare a deep bacterial community characterization from one site in the English Channel (L4-DeepSeq) with 356 datasets from the International Census of Marine Microbes (ICoMM) taken from around the globe (ranging from marine pelagic and sediment samples to sponge-associated environments). At the L4-DeepSeq site, increasing sequencing depth uncovers greater phylogenetic overlap with the global ICoMM data. This site contained 31.7-66.2% of operational taxonomic units identified in a given ICoMM biome. Extrapolation of this overlap suggests that 1.93 × 10(11) sequences from the L4 site would capture all ICoMM bacterial phylogenetic diversity. Current technology trends suggest this limit may be attainable within 3 y. These results strongly suggest the marine biosphere maintains a previously undetected, persistent microbial seed bank.