{
  "abstract": "Early-life wheezing has been associated with microbial alterations along the gut-airway axis, yet few studies have examined bacterial communities in both compartments within the same children. This cross-sectional exploratory pilot study (n=25) characterized nasal and stool bacterial communities in children aged 1-4 years with recurrent wheeze and healthy controls using 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding. Across participants, nasal and stool bacteriomes were highly individualized and taxonomically diverse. Overall richness, evenness, and global community composition did not differ significantly between healthy controls and children with recurrent wheeze in either compartment. Nasal communities in the recurrent-wheeze group showed greater within-group dispersion, although the comparison did not reach the conventional significance threshold (p=0.054). Exploratory distance-based stratification identified a subgroup with nasal profiles farther from the healthy-control centroid; these profiles had lower richness and evenness, higher Moraxella abundance, and lower abundances of Prevotella spp., Alloprevotella, and Veillonella. No statistically supported genus-level differences were detected in stool samples. Community-assembly and co-occurrence analyses yielded group-specific descriptive patterns in both compartments. Different sets of cross-compartment correlations passed the multiple-testing threshold in healthy controls and children with recurrent wheeze, including correlations of stool Lactococcus with several nasal taxa in the recurrent-wheeze group. Because these analyses were performed in small groups, they are considered hypothesis-generating. These findings identify nasal microbial heterogeneity and exploratory differences in community organization in preschool children with recurrent wheeze, while providing no evidence for causal or Moraxella-driven effects. Larger longitudinal studies with functional measurements are required for validation.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Research Unit of Comparative Microbiome Analysis, Helmholtz Munich, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany.",
    "Department of Pediatric Allergology, Dr. von Hauner Children's Hospital, Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, Germany.",
    "Comprehensive Pneumology Center Munich (CPC-M), German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Munich, Germany.",
    "Institut für Asthma- und Allergieprävention (IAP), Helmholtz Munich, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany.",
    "Department of Pediatric Pneumology, Allergology and Neonatology, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany.",
    "Biomedical Research in Endstage and Obstructive Lung Disease Hannover (BREATH), German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Hanover, Germany.",
    "Cluster of Excellence RESIST (EXC 2155), German Research Foundation (DFG), Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.",
    "Airway Research Center North (ARCN), German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Borstel, Lübeck and Großhansdorf, Germany.",
    "Department of Paediatric Pneumology & Allergology, University Clinics Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH), Lübeck, Germany.",
    "Division of Epigenetics in Chronic Lung Disease, Priority Area Chronic Lung Diseases, Leibniz Lung Center, Research Center Borstel, Borstel, Germany.",
    "LungenClinic Grosshansdorf GmbH, Grosshansdorf, Germany.",
    "Department of Pediatric Respiratory Medicine, Inselspital, University Children's Hospital of Bern, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.",
    "German Center for Child and Adolescent Health (DZKJ), Dr. von Hauner Children's Hospital, LMU, Munich, Germany.",
    "Research Unit of Comparative Microbiome Analysis, Helmholtz Munich, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany. michael.schloter@helmholtz-munich.de.",
    "Comprehensive Pneumology Center Munich (CPC-M), German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Munich, Germany. michael.schloter@helmholtz-munich.de.",
    "Chair for Environmental Microbiology, Technical University of Munich, Freising, Germany. michael.schloter@helmholtz-munich.de."
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 17,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Silvia Gschwendtner"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1,
        2,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Nicole Maison"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Sabina Illi"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1,
        2,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Erika von Mutius"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4,
        5
      ],
      "name": "Ilona Rosenboom"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4,
        5
      ],
      "name": "Burkhard Tümmler"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4,
        5,
        6
      ],
      "name": "Anna-Maria Dittrich"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7,
        8,
        9
      ],
      "name": "Markus Weckmann"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7,
        10
      ],
      "name": "Mustafa Abdo"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7,
        10
      ],
      "name": "Benjamin Waschki"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7,
        8,
        11
      ],
      "name": "Matthias V Kopp"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4,
        5
      ],
      "name": "Gesine Hansen"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7,
        8
      ],
      "name": "Folke Brinkmann"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7,
        10
      ],
      "name": "Klaus Rabe"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1,
        2,
        12
      ],
      "name": "Bianca Schaub"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        13,
        14,
        15
      ],
      "name": "Michael Schloter"
    },
    {
      "name": "the ALLIANCE Study Group"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6b2e77s9tb1g6.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1007/s00248-026-02867-3",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13719913",
  "id": "6b2e77s9tb1g6",
  "issns": [
    "0095-3628",
    "1432-184X"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42955378",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "Research"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "1312|Gut microbiota and health"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7204745163",
  "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13719913?pdf=render",
  "pmcid": "PMC13719913",
  "pmid": "42955378",
  "published": "2026-09-01",
  "publisher": "Springer",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6b2e77s9tb1g6.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-01T00:20:45Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42955378",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42955378"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-02T12:23:47Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13719913",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-026-02867-3"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biochemistry",
      "origin": "openalex:1312|Gut microbiota and health",
      "subfield": "molecular-biology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Exploratory analysis of nasal and gut microbial community structure in preschool children with recurrent wheeze.",
  "title_text": "Exploratory analysis of nasal and gut microbial community structure in preschool children with recurrent wheeze.",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-03T12:20:53Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6b2e77s9tb1g6",
  "venue": "Microbial ecology",
  "versions": []
}