APOA5 and metabolic syndrome: Similar to what is observed in obese individuals by Turnbaugh's group (Turnbaugh et al., 2009), a lower level of diversity of gut microbes was present in individuals with metabolic syndrome; and some of the taxa associated with metabolic syndrome are linked to a genetic variant in the apolipoprotein A5 gene (APOA5) (Lim et al., 2016).