The upper respiratory tract microbiome of indigenous Orang Asli in north-eastern Peninsular Malaysia

Much microbiome research has focused on populations that are predominantly of European descent, and from narrow demographics that do not capture the socio-economic and lifestyle differences which impact human health. Here we examined the airway microbiomes of the Orang Asli, the indigenous peoples of Malaysia. A total of 130 participants were recruited from two sites in the north-eastern state of Terengganu in Peninsular Malaysia. Using 16S rRNA sequencing, the nasal microbiome was significantly more diverse in those aged 5–17 years compared to 50+ years ( p = 0.023) and clustered by age (PERMANOVA analysis of the Bray–Curtis distance, p = 0.001). Hierarchical clustering of Bray–Curtis dissimilarity scores revealed six microbiome clusters. The largest cluster ( n = 28; 35.4%) had a marked abundance of Corynebacterium . In the oral microbiomes Streptococcus , Neisseria and Haemophilus were dominant. Using conventional microbiology, high levels of Staphylococcus aureus carriage were observed, particularly in the 18–65 age group ( n = 17/36; 47.2% 95% CI: 30.9–63.5). The highest carriage of pneumococci was in the