Gut microbiota in congenital scoliosis: full-length PacBio 16S rRNA analysis of patient and subtype profiles

This is the first study using PacBio full-length 16S sequencing to profile GM in CS. We found no significant dysbiosis or diversity differences in CS vs healthy controls or between subtypes, consistent with recent reports in idiopathic scoliosis and CS. Some subtle compositional shifts were detectable (e.g., reduced Bacteroides_H in CS). These may reflect the deeper taxonomic resolution achieved by full-length sequencing. Despite largely negative findings, our work fills a knowledge gap and underscores clinical relevance: understanding microbiota adds to the holistic view of scoliosis pathogenesis. Future work will extend this into a longitudinal pre- and post-operative study to assess perioperative microbiome dynamics.