Abstract
Zinc deficiency could lead to a dynamic variation in gut microbial composition and function in animals. However, how zinc deficiency affects the gut microbiome in school-age children remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to profile the dynamic shifts in the gut microbiome of school-age children with zinc deficiency, and to determine whether such shifts are associated with dietary intake. A dietary survey, anthropometric measurements, and serum tests were performed on 177 school-age children, and 67 children were selected to explore the gut microbial community using amplicon sequencing. School-age children suffered from poor dietary diversity and insufficient food and nutrient intake, and 32% of them were zinc deficient. The inflammatory cytokines significantly increased in the zinc deficiency (ZD) group compared to that in the control (CK) group (p < 0.05). There was no difference in beta diversity, while the Shannon index was much higher in the ZD group (p < 0.05). At the genus level, Coprobacter, Acetivibrio, Paraprevotella, and Clostridium_XI were more abundant in the ZD group (p < 0.05). A functional predictive analysis showed that the metabolism of xenobiotics by cytochrome P450 was significantly depleted in the ZD group (p < 0.05). In conclusion, gut microbial diversity was affected by zinc deficiency with some specific bacteria highlighted in the ZD group, which may be used as biomarkers for further clinical diagnosis of zinc deficiency.