Dietary Gradient, Blastocystis Colonisation, and Gut Microbiota Ecology in Mexican University Students: An Exploratory Cross-Sectional Study.
4 affiliations
- 1Instituto de Ciencia y Medicina Genómica, Torreón 27000, Mexico.
- 2Faculty of Health Sciences, Juárez University of the State of Durango, Gómez Palacio 35050, Mexico.
- 3Department of Molecular Immunobiology, Center for Biomedical Research, Universidad Autonoma de Coahuila, Torreón 27000, Mexico.
- 4School of Engineering and Sciences, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Torreón 27000, Mexico.
Abstract
Gut microbiota is shaped by interactions among diet, host characteristics, and microbial colonisation. This exploratory cross-sectional study examined associations between a dietary gradient, Blastocystis colonisation, and gut microbiota in 41 university students, seven (17.1%) of whom were colonised with Blastocystis. Dietary intake was assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire, and a diet-ratio was derived from the relative energy contribution of industrialised and non-industrialised foods. Gut microbiota was characterised by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The multivariable model including diet-ratio, age, and body mass index was associated with microbiota structure in the primary genus-level analysis (PERMANOVA: R² = 0.090, p = 0.041), although this association was attenuated after adjustment for abdominal pain and was not retained using the de novo DADA2 ASV table. Blastocystis colonisation was not associated with overall microbiota composition but was associated with greater alpha diversity (Shannon: p = 0.033; Gini-Simpson: p = 0.043). These alpha-diversity associations remained statistically significant after additional adjustment for abdominal pain and genus-level rarefaction, although they were less consistent in other sensitivity analyses. Genus-level associations with the dietary gradient did not remain significant after false discovery rate correction. No statistically significant diet-ratio × Blastocystis interaction was detected, although the small number of colonised participants limited assessment of effect modification. Overall, these findings suggest that dietary and Blastocystis-related associations may involve different ecological dimensions of the gut microbiota and warrant confirmation in larger studies.
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BibTeX
@article{mendezhernandez2026dietary,
title = {{Dietary Gradient, Blastocystis Colonisation, and Gut Microbiota Ecology in Mexican University Students: An Exploratory Cross-Sectional Study.}},
author = {Alejandra Méndez-Hernández and Claudia Muñoz-Yáñez and Faviel Francisco González-Galarza and Adria Imelda Prieto-Hinojosa and Janeth Oliva Guangorena-Gómez},
journal = {Foods (Basel, Switzerland)},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.3390/foods15193383},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42883490},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Dietary Gradient, Blastocystis Colonisation, and Gut Microbiota Ecology in Mexican University Students: An Exploratory Cross-Sectional Study.
AU - Alejandra Méndez-Hernández
AU - Claudia Muñoz-Yáñez
AU - Faviel Francisco González-Galarza
AU - Adria Imelda Prieto-Hinojosa
AU - Janeth Oliva Guangorena-Gómez
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/23
JO - Foods (Basel, Switzerland)
DO - 10.3390/foods15193383
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42883490
AB - Gut microbiota is shaped by interactions among diet, host characteristics, and microbial colonisation. This exploratory cross-sectional study examined associations between a dietary gradient, Blastocystis colonisation, and gut microbiota in 41 university students, seven (17.1%) of whom were colonised with Blastocystis. Dietary intake was assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire, and a diet-ratio was derived from the relative energy contribution of industrialised and non-industrialised foods. Gut microbiota was characterised by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The multivariable model including diet-ratio, age, and body mass index was associated with microbiota structure in the primary genus-level analysis (PERMANOVA: R² = 0.090, p = 0.041), although this association was attenuated after adjustment for abdominal pain and was not retained using the de novo DADA2 ASV table. Blastocystis colonisation was not associated with overall microbiota composition but was associated with greater alpha diversity (Shannon: p = 0.033; Gini-Simpson: p = 0.043). These alpha-diversity associations remained statistically significant after additional adjustment for abdominal pain and genus-level rarefaction, although they were less consistent in other sensitivity analyses. Genus-level associations with the dietary gradient did not remain significant after false discovery rate correction. No statistically significant diet-ratio × Blastocystis interaction was detected, although the small number of colonised participants limited assessment of effect modification. Overall, these findings suggest that dietary and Blastocystis-related associations may involve different ecological dimensions of the gut microbiota and warrant confirmation in larger studies.
SN - 2304-8158
ER -