Comprehensive analysis of the fecal microbiota of healthy Japanese adults reveals a new bacterial lineage associated with a phenotype characterized by a high frequency of bowel movements and a lean body type

Table 1 Subject characteristics stratified by area of residence

Subject characteristics	Whole	Hokkaido	Tohoku	Kanto	Chubu	Kansai	Chugoku Shikoku	Kyushu
Subject No.	516	38	40	193	49	49	48	99
Age	52.4 ± 13.4	50.0 ± 13.8	49.7 ± 17.1	53.5 ± 12.3	53.7 ± 14.2	54.8 ± 16.1	53.3 ± 10.0	50.0 ± 13.1
Gender ratio (Female : Male)	325 : 191	14 : 24^a	26 : 14^ab	122 : 71^ab	31 : 18^ab	19 : 30^a	36 : 12^b	77 : 22^b

Significance was calculated among area of residences
In each row, scores with the same letter in their superscripts or without superscripts were not significantly different (P ≥ 0.05) from each other

ISSN: 1471-2180