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Abstract
Introduction Microbiome residing in the airways and parenchymal tissues, as a biological barrier of respiratory tract, plays an important role in maintaining the normal functions of individual's respiratory system and preventing the invasion and colonization of exogenous pathogens. In the present study, we aimed to compare the composition and diversity of bacterial community structure in different samples collected from the individuals' airways using 16S rRNA gene sequencing technique. Alpha-diversity analysis showed that community richness (Ace and Chao indices) of BALF was higher than those in oral wash or in sputum (P < 0.05) [Figure 1]a and [Figure 1]b. Furthermore, there was also a significant difference in the community diversity (Shannon and Simpson indices) between BALF and sputum (P < 0.05) [Figure 1]c and [Figure 1]d. The most two abundant bacterial phyla in terms of both sequences and OTUs were Proteobacteria and Firmicutes in BALF, sputum, and OWF (the proportion of which accounted for all sequences in samples was 77.69%, 65.86%, and 63.96%, respectively). [...]there was substantial overlap in the microbial composition among the samples, and the percentages of total number of OTUs in sputum consistence with BALF or OWF were highly represented as 85.55% and 79.39%, respectively. In summary, our...