Assessing Gut Microbiomes and Their Energy Potential Among Trained Individuals

It is estimated that humans harbor as many microbial cells as their own, and the gastrointestinal tract alone contains nearly 1,000 distinct microbial species with a functional capacity that is 150 times greater than the human genome. The collection of these organisms that reside in the human gastrointestinal tract are commonly referred to as gut microbiome, which are influenced by the various factors that make up our lifestyle such as diet, medical history, and as determined more recently, physical activity, specifically exercise. Recent studies have demonstrated that the gut microbiome aids in improving body composition and physical fitness following exercise coinciding with improvements in human health of previously sedentary individuals. This draws the question: do highly trained individuals, such as athletes, harbor a gut microbiome that affects host phenotype including fitness, exercise capacity and potentially their performance? This work analyzes the role the gut microbiome plays among highly trained individuals and its implications on exercise training, as well as the governing mechanisms that drive the association between the two. Using multivariate modeling and machine learning, I attempt to show that the gut microbiome and their functional capacities are associated with exercise training, and athlete gut microbiomes are coupled to short chain fatty acid producers, which might contribute to phenotype of the athlete.