K-Clique Multiomics Framework: A Novel Protocol to Decipher the Role of Gut Microbiota Communities in Nutritional Intervention Trials

The availability of omics data providing information from different layers of complex biological processes that link nutrition to human health would benefit from the development of integrated approaches combining holistically individual omics data, including those associated with the microbiota that impacts the metabolisation and bioavailability of food components. Microbiota must be considered as a set of populations of interconnected consortia, with compensatory capacities to adapt to different nutritional intake. To study the consortium nature of the microbiome, we must rely on specially designed data analysis tools. The purpose of this work is to propose the construction of a general correlation network-based explorative tool, suitable for nutritional clinical trials, by integrating omics data from faecal microbial taxa, stool metabolome (1H NMR spectra) and GC-MS for stool volatilome. The presented approach exploits a descriptive paradigm necessary for a true multiomics integration of data, which is a powerful tool to investigate the complex physiological effects of nutritional interventions.