The Effect of honey consumption on the gut microbiome of Hadza hunter-gatherers in Tanzania

Abstract

The Hadza are a hunter-gatherer society who live in northern Tanzania and serve as an excellent model to study the dynamics of the human gut microbiome in a nonindustrial, nonurban setting. Females and males, in the Hadza society, gather different food to provide for their camp. During the wet season, their main food source is honey which is principally foraged by Hadza adult males and is therefore consumed in a higher proportion by men than by women and children. The Hadza microbiome is well studied, but little is known about how honey-associated microbial communities affect the Hadza gut microbiome. Our study investigated if there are differences between the microbial composition of honey in the local Tanzania area and Hadza fecal samples, and how they vary between sexes and life stages. Diversity and differential abundance analysis showed that humans have higher microbial diversity compared to honey samples, and that some components of honey microbial communities are more similar to adult samples than children or infant samples. Additionally, we found that adult males and females have similar gut microbiota, suggesting no honey consumption driven microbiota differences between sexes. We postulate that honey may have a greater effect on Hadza adult microbiomes compared to children and infants, however our results are inconclusive. Our research provides valuable insight into the dynamics of the Hadza gut microbiome with increasing age, as well as the effect of diet on the microbiome.