CRP and metabolic syndrome: Several other significant associations with bacterial composition were observed for general host characteristics such as age, T2D status, MetS status, sex, anthropometric variables such as waist-to-hip ratio and visceral fat rating, and markers of metabolic control including HDL cholesterol and HbA1c as well as inflammation markers like CRP and bacterial DNA burden (Additional file 1: table S4: envfit output for 27 variables on genera level RDA, Additional file 1: Fig. S4).