Review for 10.1186/s12876-022-02408-5 (2022)

Reviewer’s report
Title: 
Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in the Treatment of Irritable Bowel
Syndrome: A Single-Center Prospective Study in Japan
Version: 
0 
Date: 
10 Mar 2022
Reviewer's report:
In this manuscript, the authors describe the effects of FMT on IBS symptom
severity and microbiome composition. The authors found that ~60% of patients
had severity index scores decrease by 50 points of more (responders). Using 16S
rRNA gene sequencing, the authors found that responder microbiome
composition was characterized by increased similarity to donor microbiome
composition, increased alpha diversity, and shifts in the abundance of key
genera, including Neisseria, Akkermansia, Desulfovibrio, and Delftia.
Although the results of this manuscript are very interesting, it could be improved
by the consideration of the following:
1. Line 145-162: Please provide information regarding any quality filtering steps
that were performed on the sequence data.
2. Line 152: please specify which algorithms and settings in QIIME were used.
As written, there is not sufficient detail provided to allow one to repeat this
work.
3. Line 152-153: were the data rarefied or normalized in any way prior to
statistical analysis?
4. Line 153: please provide a citation for Lefse.
5. Line 155: Please include the distance/dissimilarity metric used to generate the
PCoA.
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Is the study design appropriate to answer the research question (including the use
of appropriate controls), and are the conclusions supported by the evidence
presented?
Yes
Are the methods sufficiently described to allow the study to be repeated?
No
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Yes
Is the presentation of the work clear?
Yes
Are the images in this manuscript (including electrophoretic gels and blots) free
from apparent manipulation?
Yes