Table 1.

Results of studies on Nasal microbiome in CRS

Bacterial Microbiome Studies
Name and year of publication	Study participants	Sample type	Analysis method	Microbiome analysis Results
				Microbial Diversity	Microbial Abundance	Differences at Phylum level	Differences at order, family or genus level	Differences at Species level
Stephenson et al, 2010 (48)	18 CRS 9 controls	Anterior ethmoid mucosal biopsy	Bacterial tag-encoded FLX amplicon pyrosequencing (bTEFAP)	-	-	-	Propionibacterium found in 83% of CRS vs. 67% of controls(no statistics available) Diaphorobacter spp. And Peptoniphilus only reported in CRS(78% and 72% respectively)	Staphylococcus aureus found in 50% of CRS vs 100% of controls (no statistics available)
Stressmann et al, 2011(49)	70 samples from 43 CRS No control	Mucosal biopsy	16S-rDNA sequencing and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP)	No control	-	-	Most abundant: Pseudomonas, Citrobacter, Haemophilus, Propionibacterium, Staphylococcus and Streptococcus	-
Abreu et al, 2012(53)	7 CRS 7control	Endoscopically guided maxillary sinus brushing	16S rRNA PhyloChip Phylogenetic microarray approach	Decreased in CRS: Decreased richness (number of bacterial types) Decreased evenness (relative distribution of bacterial types) Decreased Shannon’s diversity	Not different	-	Decreased:order Lactobacillales	Increased:Corynebacterium tuberculostearicum Decreased: Lactobacillus Sakai, Carnobacterium alterfunditum, Enterococcus mundtii, and Pediococcus pentosaceus
Feazel et al, 2012(51)	15 CRS (2 wNP and 13sNP) 5 controls	Middle meatus swabs	16-rDNA pyrosequencing and comparison with Silva version 104	Diversity was not different, A trend towards lower evenness in CRS	Not different	-	-	Increased: a trend towards increase for Staphylococcus aureus
Aurora et al, 2013(52)	30 CRS 12control	Lavage of the middle meatus	16S rRNA sequenced and submitted to NCBI; analyzed using scripts in the QIIME (Quantitative Insights into Microbial Ecology)	Increased diversity in CRS: 2333 in controls vs 3780 in CRS	Increased in CRS	No difference at phylum level	-	Increased Corynebacterium accolens, Curtobacterium species S22, Pseudomonas DT3-61, Staphylococcus aureus Pseudomonas aeruginosa Decreased: Alicycliphilus and Cloacibacterium
Boase et al, 2013(50)	38 CRS and 6 controls	Ethmoid sinus mucosal tissue	Ibis T5000 analysis PCR coupled with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry	Trends towards increased diversity; mean isolates per patient in controls was 2, in CRSsNP was 2.5 and in CRSwNP was 3.2	Increased in CRS	-	-	Increased: Staphylococcus aureus in abundance and frequency Less frequently: Propionibacterium acnes
Choi et al, 2014(54)	8 CRS (5wNP and 3sNP) 3 controls	Nasal lavage (NAL) fluid	16S-rDNA high-throughput pyrosequencing followed by identification using ExTaxon database.	Decreased diversity in CRS	Increased abundance in CRS	Increased: Proteobacteria Decreased: Bacteroidetes decreased, from 25.42% to 7.37%	Increased: Staphylococcus, Corynebacterium and Propionibacterium Decreased: Prevotella, Streptococcus and Veillonella *Pseudomonas increased in CRSwNP compared with CRSsNP	Increased: Staphylococcus epidermidis, Pseudomonas monteilii Decreased: Prevotella melaninogenica Staphylococcus aureus increased in CRSwNP compared to CRSsNP
Ramakrishnan et al, 2015(58)	56 CRS and 26 controls	Swabs from Ethmoid region obtained during surgery	16-rDNA pyrosequencing and comparison with Silva version 111.	Not reported between CRS and Controls, Diversity was associated with optimal surgical outcome in CRS	No difference	No difference	Decreased: Propionibacterium and Peptoniphilus at genum level *Multiple Genera different when comparing CRS with and without asthma(detailed in the text)	Not reported between CRS and controls
Fungal Microbiome Studies
	Study participants	Sample type	Analysis method	Microbial Diversity	Microbial Abundance	Differences at Phylum level	Differences at order, family or genus level	Differences at Species level
Aurora et al. 2013(52)	30 CRS 12 controls	Lavage of the middle meatus	18S rRNA deep sequencing	Increased diversity in CRS	-	Increased: Ascomycota Decreased: Basidiomycota	-	Increased: Cryptococcus neofromans, Rhodosporidium diabovatum, Davadiella Tassaiana Decreased: Malassezia-uncultured stramenopile
Boase et al 2013(50)	38 CRS and 6 controls	Ethmoid sinus mucosal tissue	Ibis T5000 analysis PCR coupled with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry	Fungi were only detected in 3 CRSwNP cases and in none of the control or CRSsNP	-	-	-	Only 3 positive samples; 2 CRSwNP cases had Aspergillus Fumigatus and 1 CRSwNP case had Penicilium Chrysogenum
Cleland et al. 2014(88)	23 CRS 11 controls	Middle meatus or anterior ethmoid swabs	18S rDNA tag-encoded FLX amplicon pyrosequencing	Not different	-	-	Increased: Scutellospora 33 genera had differential abundance in CRS vs. Controls	-