16S rRNA
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceRandomized Lasso Links Microbial Taxa with Aquatic Functional Groups Inferred from Flow CytometryA major goal in microbial ecology is to understand how microbial community structure influences ecosystem functioning. Various methods to directly associate bacterial taxa to functional groups in the environment are being developed. In this study, we applied machine learning methods to relate taxonomic data obtained from marker gene surveys to functional groups identified by flow cytometry. This allowed us to identify the taxa that are...
Research Article | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyIdentification of Initial Colonizing Bacteria in Dental Plaques from Young Adults Using Full-Length 16S rRNA Gene SequencingSelective attachment of salivary bacteria to the tooth surface is an initial and repetitive phase in dental plaque development. We employed full-length 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis with a high taxonomic resolution using a third-generation sequencer, PacBio Sequel, to determine the bacterial composition during early plaque formation in 74 young adults accurately and in detail. The results revealed 21 bacterial taxa primarily involved...
Research Article | Ecological and Evolutionary Science16S rRNA/rRNA Gene Ratios and Cell Activity Staining Reveal Consistent Patterns of Microbial Activity in Plant-Associated SoilAlthough the majority of microorganisms in natural ecosystems are dormant, relatively little is known about the dynamics of the active and dormant microbial pools through both space and time. The limited knowledge of microbial activity-dormancy dynamics is in part due to uncertainty in the methods currently used to quantify active taxa. Here, we directly compared two of the most common methods (16S ratios and active cell staining) for...
Editor's Pick Research Article | Host-Microbe BiologyQualitative and Quantitative DNA- and RNA-Based Analysis of the Bacterial Stomach Microbiota in Humans, Mice, and GerbilsClinical stomach interventions, such as acid inhibition or bypass surgery, have been linked to fecal microbiota alterations. We demonstrate that the stomach microbiota largely overlaps those of adjacent gastrointestinal locations and identify gradual decreases and increases in the relative abundances of specific bacteria within the stomach, suggesting selective enrichment and depletion. Moreover, similarities between stomach and...
Research Article | Ecological and Evolutionary ScienceReevaluating the Salty Divide: Phylogenetic Specificity of Transitions between Marine and Freshwater SystemsThe distribution of microbial diversity across environments yields insight into processes that create and maintain this diversity as well as potential to infer how communities will respond to future environmental changes. We integrated data sets from dozens of freshwater lake and marine samples to compare diversity across open water habitats differing in salinity. Our novel combination of sequence-based approaches revealed lineages that...
Methods and Protocols | Novel Systems Biology TechniquesDirect PCR Offers a Fast and Reliable Alternative to Conventional DNA Isolation Methods for Gut MicrobiomesThe microbial communities of animals can have large impacts on their hosts, and the number of studies using high-throughput sequencing to measure gut microbiomes is rapidly increasing. However, the library preparation procedure in microbiome research is both costly and time-consuming, especially for large numbers of samples. We investigated a cheaper and faster direct PCR method designed to bypass the DNA isolation steps during 16S rRNA...
Editor's Pick Research Article | Host-Microbe BiologyMulti-omics Analysis of Periodontal Pocket Microbial Communities Pre- and PosttreatmentPeriodontal disease affects the majority of adults worldwide and has been linked to numerous systemic diseases. Despite decades of research, the reasons for the substantial differences among periodontitis patients in disease incidence, progressivity, and response to treatment remain poorly understood. While deep sequencing of oral bacterial communities has greatly expanded our comprehension of the microbial diversity of periodontal...
Observation | Host-Microbe BiologyCorrecting for Microbial Blooms in Fecal Samples during Room-Temperature ShippingIn many microbiome studies, the necessity to store samples at room temperature (i.e., remote fieldwork) and the ability to ship samples without hazardous materials that require special handling training, such as ethanol (i.e., citizen science efforts), is paramount. However, although room-temperature storage for a few days has been shown not to obscure physiologically relevant microbiome differences between comparison groups, there are...
Research Article | Ecological and Evolutionary ScienceSSUnique: Detecting Sequence Novelty in Microbiome SurveysExtensive SSU rRNA gene sequence libraries, constructed from DNA extracts of environmental or host-associated samples, often contain many unclassified sequences, many representing organisms with novel taxonomy (taxonomic “blind spots”) and potentially unique ecology. This novelty is poorly explored in standard workflows, which narrows the breadth and discovery potential of such studies. Here we present the SSUnique analysis pipeline,...
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...