2.5. Omics Integration Describes Association between Bacterial Function and Fecal Metabolites Involved in Amino Acid and Bile Acids Metabolism
CA/CCA, that bile acid
To investigate whether key microbial functions involved in amino acid metabolism and bile acid deconjugation contribute to the changes observed in the fecal metabolome of the EE cohort, the metabolomics data were integrated with the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) orthologues (KO). The metabolites significantly discriminating between the control and test groups in the EE cohort, as well as the CA/CCA and BA/CBA bile acid ratios, were included in the correlation analysis (Several statistically significant positive associations were found between a cluster of metabolites, including fusel acids, 4-cresol sulfate, phenylalanine, hydrocinnamic acid and pimelic acid, and KO involved in the Ehrlich pathways (This analysis also revealed that bile acid hydrolase was positively correlated with BA/CBA and negatively correlated with dehydrocholic acid. The bile acid hydrolase activity appeared to be higher in infants from the test group at V6, although the difference was not statistically significant. We also found significant positive associations between BA/CBA, CA/CCA, or bile acid hydrolase and late FCTs at V3.