Blastocystis Colonization Is Associated with Increased Diversity and Altered Gut Bacterial Communities in Healthy Malian Children

is the most common protozoan colonizing the gut of vertebrates. It modulates the human digestive microbiota in the absence of inflammation and gastrointestinal disease. Although it has been associated with human diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease, its pathogenicity remains controversial. This study aimed to assess the influence of on the gut bacterial communities in healthy children. We conducted a cross-sectional study on 147 colonized and 149 noncolonized Malian children, with colonization assessed by real-time PCR and gut microbial communities characterized via 16S rRNA gene (Illumina MiSeq) sequencing and bioinformatics analysis. The gut microbiota diversity was higher in Blastocystis-colonized compared to noncolonized children. The phyla Firmicutes, Elusimicrobia, Lentisphaerae, and Euryarchaeota were higher in colonized children, whereas Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, unassigned bacteria, and Deinococcus-Thermus were higher in noncolonized children. Moreover, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii (family Ruminococcaceae) and Roseburia sp. (family Lachnospiraceae) abundance was higher in Blastocystis-colonized children. We conclude that Blastocystis colonization is significantly associated with a higher diversity of the gut bacterial communities in healthy children, while it is not associated with the presence of potentially pathogenic bacteria in the human gut.