The gut microbiota of a Malaysian community: Characterisation of extended-spectrum ß-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli and amplicon sequence analysis

The human gut microbiota plays an essential role in maintaining human health. However, it is easily malleable by external factors such as diet, which can mask clinically relevant signals. Ethnicity represents one such factor. Currently, our understanding of how ethnicity drives gut microbiota variation is limited and does not extend to the Southeast Asian setting. This thesis addresses this by investigating how ethnicity influences the gut microbiota and its possible role in the aetiologies of ethnic-specific diseases using Segamat as a case study. The carriage of ESBL, a key complication in the treatment of microbial infections, was also examined.