Novel Systems Biology Techniques
Editor's Pick Research Article | Novel Systems Biology TechniquesIntegrated Regulatory and Metabolic Networks of the Marine Diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum Predict the Response to Rising CO2 LevelsUsing a systems biology approach, we studied the response of the marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum to changing atmospheric carbon concentrations on an ocean-wide scale. By integrating an available genome-scale metabolic model and a newly developed transcriptional regulatory network inferred from transcriptome sequencing expression data, we demonstrate that carbon metabolism and nitrogen metabolism are strongly connected...
Methods and Protocols | Novel Systems Biology TechniquesMicrobiome Helper: a Custom and Streamlined Workflow for Microbiome ResearchAs the microbiome field continues to grow, a multitude of researchers are learning how to conduct proper microbiome experiments. We outline here a streamlined and custom approach to processing samples from detailed sequencing library construction to step-by-step bioinformatic standard operating procedures. This allows for rapid and reliable microbiome analysis, allowing researchers to focus more on their experiment design and results....
Editor's Pick Research Article | Novel Systems Biology TechniquesSpatial Molecular Architecture of the Microbial Community of a Peltigera LichenMicrobial communities have evolved over centuries to live symbiotically. The direct visualization of such communities at the chemical and functional level presents a challenge. Overcoming this challenge may allow one to visualize the spatial distributions of specific molecules involved in symbiosis and to define their functional roles in shaping the community structure. In this study, we examined the diversity of microbial genes and...
Editor's Pick Research Article | Novel Systems Biology TechniquesGenetic and Transcriptional Analysis of Human Host Response to Healthy Gut MicrobiotaThe study of host-microbiota interactions in humans is largely limited to identifying associations between microbial communities and host phenotypes. While these studies have generated important insights on the links between the microbiota and human disease, the assessment of cause-and-effect relationships has been challenging. Although this relationship can be studied in germfree mice, this system is costly, and it is difficult to...
Editor's Pick Research Article | Novel Systems Biology TechniquesMoleculo Long-Read Sequencing Facilitates Assembly and Genomic Binning from Complex Soil MetagenomesSoil microorganisms carry out key processes for life on our planet, including cycling of carbon and other nutrients and supporting growth of plants. However, there is poor molecular-level understanding of their functional roles in ecosystem stability and responses to environmental perturbations. This knowledge gap is largely due to the difficulty in culturing the majority of soil microbes. Thus, use of culture-independent approaches,...
Research Article | Novel Systems Biology TechniquesA Universal Next-Generation Sequencing Protocol To Generate Noninfectious Barcoded cDNA Libraries from High-Containment RNA VirusesThis report establishes and validates a standard operating procedure (SOP) for select agents (SAs) and other biosafety level 3 and/or 4 (BSL-3/4) RNA viruses to rapidly generate noninfectious, barcoded cDNA amenable for next-generation sequencing (NGS). This eliminates the burden of testing all processed samples derived from high-consequence pathogens prior to transfer from high-containment laboratories to lower-containment facilities...
Editor's Pick Research Article | Novel Systems Biology TechniquesMPLEx: a Robust and Universal Protocol for Single-Sample Integrative Proteomic, Metabolomic, and Lipidomic AnalysesIn systems biology studies, the integration of multiple omics measurements (i.e., genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and lipidomics) has been shown to provide a more complete and informative view of biological pathways. Thus, the prospect of extracting different types of molecules (e.g., DNAs, RNAs, proteins, and metabolites) and performing multiple omics measurements on single samples is very attractive, but such...
Editor's Pick Research Article | Novel Systems Biology TechniquesAn Integrated Metabolomic and Genomic Mining Workflow To Uncover the Biosynthetic Potential of BacteriaWe here combine chemical analysis and genomics to probe for new bioactive secondary metabolites based on their pattern of distribution within bacterial species. We demonstrate the usefulness of this combined approach in a group of marine Gram-negative bacteria closely related to Pseudoalteromonas luteoviolacea, which is a species known to produce a broad spectrum of...
Research Article | Novel Systems Biology TechniquesFrom Sample to Multi-Omics Conclusions in under 48 HoursPolymicrobial infections are difficult to diagnose due to the challenge in comprehensively cultivating the microbes present. Omics methods, such as 16S rRNA sequencing, metagenomics, and metabolomics, can provide a more complete picture of a microbial community and its metabolite production, without the biases and selectivity of microbial culture. However, these advanced methods have not been applied to clinical or industrial...
Editor's Pick Research Article | Novel Systems Biology TechniquesMetabolic Model-Based Integration of Microbiome Taxonomic and Metabolomic Profiles Elucidates Mechanistic Links between Ecological and Metabolic VariationStudies characterizing both the taxonomic composition and metabolic profile of various microbial communities are becoming increasingly common, yet new computational methods are needed to integrate and interpret these data in terms of known biological mechanisms. Here, we introduce an analytical framework to link species composition and metabolite measurements, using a simple model to predict the effects of community ecology on...