nutrients Article Gut Microbiota Profile and Its Association with Clinical Variables and Dietary Intake in Overweight/Obese and Lean Subjects: A Cross-Sectional Study Judit Companys 1,2 , Maria José Gosalbes 3,4, *, Laura Pla-Pagà 1,2 , Lorena Calderón-Pérez 1,2 , Elisabet Llauradó 2 , Anna Pedret 1,2, *, Rosa Maria Valls 1,2, * , Nuria Jiménez-Hernández 3,4 , Berner Andrée Sandoval-Ramirez 2 , Josep Maria del Bas 1 , Antoni Caimari 5 , Laura Rubió 6 and Rosa Solà 1,2,7   Citation: Companys, J.; Gosalbes, M.J.; Pla-Pagà, L.; Calderón-Pérez, L.; Llauradó, E.; Pedret, A.; Valls, R.M.; Jiménez-Hernández, N.; Sandoval-Ramirez, B.A.; del Bas, J.M.; et al. Gut Microbiota Profile and Its Association with Clinical Variables and Dietary Intake in Overweight/ Obese and Lean Subjects: A Cross- Sectional Study. Nutrients 2021, 13, 2032. https://doi.org/10.3390/ nu13062032 Academic Editor: Maria Cristina Mele Received: 7 May 2021 Accepted: 11 June 2021 Published: 13 June 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Eurecat, Centre Tecnològic de Catalunya, Unitat de Nutrició i Salut, 43204 Reus, Spain; judit.companys@eurecat.org (J.C.); laura.pla@eurecat.org (L.P.-P.); lorena.calderon@eurecat.org (L.C.-P.); josep.delbas@eurecat.org (J.M.d.B.); rosa.sola@urv.cat (R.S.) 2 Functional Nutrition, Oxidation, and Cardiovascular Diseases Group (NFOC-Salut), Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, C/Sant Llorenç 21, 43201 Reus, Spain; elisabet.llaurado@urv.cat (E.L.); andreesandoval1@gmail.com (B.A.S.-R.) 3 Fundación para el Fomento de la Investigación Sanitaria y Biomédica, 46020 Valencia, Spain; nuria.jimenez@uv.es 4 CIBER en Epidemiología y Salud Pública, 28029 Madrid, Spain 5 Eurecat, Centre Tecnològic de Catalunya, Biotechnology Area, 43204 Reus, Spain; antoni.caimari@eurecat.org 6 XaRTA-TPV, Agrotecnio Center, Escola Tècnica Superior d’Enginyeria Agrària, Food Technology Department, University of Lleida, Avda/Alcalde Rovira Roure 191, Lleida, 25198 Catalonia, Spain; laura.rubio@udl.cat 7 Hospital Universitari Sant Joan de Reus, 43201 Reus, Spain * Correspondence: maria.jose.gosalbes@uv.es (M.J.G.); anna.pedret@urv.cat (A.P.); rosamaria.valls@urv.cat (R.M.V.); Tel.: +34-96-1925965 (M.J.G.); +34-97-7759375 (A.P. & R.M.V.) Abstract: We aimed to differentiate gut microbiota composition of overweight/obese and lean subjects and to determine its association with clinical variables and dietary intake. A cross-sectional study was performed with 96 overweight/obese subjects and 32 lean subjects. Anthropometric parameters were positively associated with Collinsella aerofaciens, Dorea formicigenerans and Dorea longicatena, which had higher abundance the overweight/obese subjects. Moreover, different genera of Lachnospiraceae were negatively associated with body fat, LDL and total cholesterol. Saturated fatty acids (SFAs) were negatively associated with the genus Intestinimonas, a biomarker of the overweight/obese group, whereas SFAs were positively associated with Roseburia, a biomarker for the lean group. In conclusion, Dorea formicigenerans, Dorea longicatena and Collinsella aerofaciens could be considered obesity biomarkers, Lachnospiraceae is associated with lipid cardiovascular risk factors. SFAs exhibited opposite association profiles with butyrate-producing bacteria depending on the BMI. Thus, the relationship between diet and microbiota opens new tools for the management of obesity. Keywords: obesity; gut microbiota; dietary intake; saturated fatty acids 1. Introduction The worldwide prevalence of obesity has nearly tripled since 1975 [1]. Age, family history, genetics, sex, race and ethnicity are all unmodifiable risk factors that influence the occurrence of obesity, whereas the diet represents the main modifiable risk factor for tackling the incidence of obesity [2]. Specific food groups or certain dietary compounds, such as the high consumption of red meat, saturated fatty acids (SFAs) and the insufficient intake of fiber, have been linked to the onset and progression of obesity [3–5]. Nutrients 2021, 13, 2032. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13062032 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/nutrients