Dong D, et al. - Researchers sought to explore the overall carriage rates of Clostridium difficile and Staphylococcus aureus in healthy adults from the community, and to characterize the gut microbiomes of C. difficile and S. aureus carriers. Findings revealed no significant effect of colonization by C. difficile and S. aureus on gut microbiota diversity in healthy adults. However, at the phylum level, carriage of C. difficile or methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) was associated with a paucity of Bacteroidetes and an overabundance of Proteobacteria compared with non-carriers. At the genus level, a decreased prevalence of the genera Bacteroides, Prevotella, Faecalibacterium, and Roseburia was noted in C. difficile-positive samples compared with the controls, while the proportion of Clostridium cluster XIVa species was increased. A higher proportion of the genera Parasutterella and Klebsiella were noted in MRSA carriers, but with a decreased prevalence of Bacteroides. Klebsiella was the only genus found to be significantly enriched in MRSA carriers compared with methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) carriers. In C. difficile carriers, the alteration of the gut microbiota composition could indicate a predisposition to further infection.