Abstract
Dietary flaxseed (FS) and its components including FS oil (FSO), secoisolariciresinol diglucoside (SDG) and fiber, are processed by the gut microbiota. These data are in support of the article entitled “Discriminatory and cooperative effects within the mouse gut microbiota in response to flaxseed and its oil and lignan components”, Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry [1]. Here we describe data generated by 16S rRNA sequencing of DNA obtained from cecum contents and feces of C57BL/6 female mice fed either a basal diet (BD, AIN93G), or isocaloric diets containing 10% FS, or 10% FS-equivalent amounts of FSO or SDG for 21 days. These include bacterial community composition and inferred KEGG pathways; the raw data are publicly available at the NCBI SRA database (BioProject ID PRJNA683934). Furthermore, this work includes detailed experimentation procedures, total bacterial counts (qPCR) in the cecum content and feces, and correlation analysis between a selected bacterial genus, Bacteroides and a predicted metabolic pathway. FS is utilized worldwide, especially for the prevention and/or treatment of diseases including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer. These data will be valuable as a reference to study different FS cultivars and SDG- or FSO- enriched products on the gut microbiota, to study gut microbial responses to FS and its components in different mouse strains and mammalian hosts to elucidate individualized effects, and to understand the importance of the gut microbiota for FS benefits.
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Key Points
These data provide the first analysis of the gut microbiota in response to flaxseed and its isolated oil and SDG. This is of importance because the microbiota is responsible for at least partially processing FS and its components and the generation of beneficial metabolites. Understanding the effects of FS and its components on the microbiota will help deciphering the mechanisms behind its role in preventative and therapeutic interventions. These data will serve as an important reference to study different cultivars of FS and different products containing varying amounts of FSO and SDG. The data may also help scientists and clinical practitioners in developing a gut microbiota-targeted dietary intervention for personalized treatment and specific health outcomes. The data can be used for multi-omics analyses for studying microbiome relationships at different intestinal sites and to identify microbial biomarkers to predict the effectiveness of dietary interventions or to develop a specific therapeutic target.