Investigation methodology

In order to analyze the intestinal microbiome, a particular analysis is necessary, the 'Next generation sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene'. This test analyzes a bacterial gene called 16S rRNA - a sort of identity card for microbes - and provides the name of all the bacteria present in the sample and their abundance as a result.

Precisely, we extract DNA from feces, amplify the V3-V4 regions of the 16S rRNA gene, sequence them with the Illumina Miseq platform and analyze them with a bioinformatic software called Qiime2, identifying the bacteria against the Greengenes database.

The comparison of each participant's microbiota against the Microbioma Italiano database provides an overview of how one's microbiome influences the health status of the entire organism.