Characteristics and functions of the gut microbiome in monozygotic twins with autism spectrum disorders of varying severity

Table 1 Demographic and clinical characteristics of twins with co-occurring autism spectrum disorder

Group	Sample	Sex	Age (month age)	Diagnosis	Antibiotic use in the past three months	ADI-A	ADI-B	ADI-C	CARS
MZCo-ASD-H	1	Male	69.00	ASD	None	20	12	4	36
	2	Female	64.00	ASD	None	19	18	4	33
	3	Male	60.00	ASD	None	9	8	3	32
	4	Male	42.00	ASD	None	18	22	6	34
	5	Male	62.00	ASD	None	22	16	9	39
	6	Male	63.00	ASD	None	12	18	9	38
	7	Male	36.00	ASD	None	23	11	5	35
	8	Male	56.00	ASD	None	20	13	5	39
	9	Male	42.00	ASD	None	20	7	8	35
	10	Male	56.00	ASD	None	18	12	2	34
	11	Female	32.00	ASD	None	24	14	3	42
	12	Male	24.00	ASD	None	16	13	6	35
	13	Female	64.00	ASD	None	12	2	2	34
	14	Male	43.00	ASD	None	20	10	3	36
	15	Female	41.00	ASD	None	11	5	4	33
	16	Male	42.00	ASD	None	14	9	7	34
	17	Male	41.00	ASD	None	16	16	6	30
	18	Male	28.00	ASD	None	23	14	6	45
	19	Female	35.00	ASD	None	20	14	3	38
MZCo-ASD-L	1	Male	69.00	ASD	None	20	11	3	33
	2	Female	68.00	ASD	None	17	16	9	31
	3	Male	60.00	ASD	None	7	2	3	31
	4	Male	42.00	ASD	None	13	16	2	31
	5	Male	62.00	ASD	None	16	14	8	33
	6	Male	63.00	ASD	None	6	11	5	30
	7	Male	36.00	ASD	None	22	11	4	33
	8	Male	56.00	ASD	None	15	8	3	33
	9	Male	42.00	ASD	None	13	6	2	32
	10	Male	56.00	ASD	None	0	1	0	30
	11	Female	32.00	ASD	None	20	12	2	34
	12	Male	24.00	ASD	None	17	11	4	33
	13	Female	64.00	ASD	None	12	2	2	31
	14	Male	43.00	ASD	None	8	8	0	30
	15	Female	41.00	ASD	None	6	9	2	30
	16	Male	42.00	ASD	None	14	9	4	31
	17	Male	41.00	ASD	None	15	16	2	28
	18	Male	28.00	ASD	None	15	12	4	43
	19	Female	35.00	ASD	None	16	10	0	33
Total, mean ± SD	38	28/10	47.47 ± 13.73	ASD	None	15.50 ± 5.47	11.0 ± 4.80	4.05 ± 2.45	34.00 ± 3.80

ADI: Autism Diagnostic Interview; CARS: Childhood Autism Rating Scale; MZCo-ASD-H: Severe monozygotic twins with autism spectrum disorder; MZCo-ASD-L: Monozygotic twins with autism spectrum disorder-mild group; ASD: Autism spectrum disorder.

Table 2 Intra-pair differences in clinical assessment of monozygotic twins with autism spectrum disorder, mean ± SD

	Group	CARS	ADI-R
			Social interaction	Language	Stereotyped behavior
MZCo-ASD	H	35.89 ± 3.59	17.74 ± 4.40	12.32 ± 4.83	5.00 ± 2.19
	L	32.11 ± 3.05	13.26 ± 5.63	9.74 ± 4.53	3.11 ± 2.38
	t	3.51	2.73	1.79	2.56
	P value	0.00c	0.00b	0.098	0.015a

^aP < 0.05.

^bP < 0.01.

^cP < 0.001.

MZCo-ASD: Monozygotic twins with autism spectrum disorder; CARS: Childhood Autism Rating Scale; ADI: Autism Diagnostic Interview.

Table 3 The relative abundance of the microbiota at the genus level between the severe monozygotic twins with autism spectrum disorder group and the monozygotic twins with autism spectrum disorder-mild group, mean ± SD

Gut microbiota	MZCo-ASD-H	MZCo-ASD-L	P value	q value
Alloprevotella	0.001366 ± 0.000035	0 ± 0	0.000999	0.019

MZCo-ASD-H: Severe monozygotic twins with autism spectrum disorder; MZCo-ASD-L: Monozygotic twins with autism spectrum disorder-mild group.