Project description:In this paper, we first report that EC smoking significantly increases the odds of gingival inflammation. Then, we seek to identify and explain the mechanism that underlies the relationship between EC smoking and gingival inflammation via the oral microbiome. We performed mediation analyses to assess if EC smoking affects the oral microbiome, which in turn affects gingival inflammation. For this, we collected saliva and subgingival samples from EC users and non-users and profiled their microbial compositions via 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. We then performed α-diversity, β-diversity, and taxonomic differential analyses to survey the disparity in microbial composition between EC users and non-users. We found significant increases in α-diversity in EC users and disparities in β-diversity between EC users and non-users.
Project description:Metagenomic approaches have revealed unprecedented genetic diversity within microbial communities across vast expanses of the world’s oceans. Linking this genetic diversity with key metabolic and cellular activities of microbial assemblages is a fundamental challenge. Here we report on a collaborative effort to design MicroTOOLs (Microbiological Targets for Ocean Observing Laboratories), a high-density oligonucleotide microarray that targets functional genes of diverse taxa in pelagic and coastal marine microbial communities. MicroTOOLs integrates nucleotide sequence information from disparate data types: genomes, PCR-amplicons, metagenomes, and metatranscriptomes. It targets 19 400 unique sequences over 145 different genes that are relevant to stress responses and microbial metabolism across the three domains of life and viruses. MicroTOOLs was used in a proof-of-concept experiment that compared the functional responses of microbial communities following Fe and P enrichments of surface water samples from the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. We detected transcription of 68% of the gene targets across major taxonomic groups, and the pattern of transcription indicated relief from Fe limitation and transition to N limitation in some taxa. Prochlorococcus (eHLI), Synechococcus (sub-cluster 5.3) and Alphaproteobacteria SAR11 clade (HIMB59) showed the strongest responses to the Fe enrichment. In addition, members of uncharacterized lineages also responded. The MicroTOOLs microarray provides a robust tool for comprehensive characterization of major functional groups of microbes in the open ocean, and the design can be easily amended for specific environments and research questions.
Project description:The anaerobic digestion microbiomes has been puzzling us since the dawn of molecular methods for mixed microbial community analysis. Monitoring of the anaerobic digestion microbiome can either take place via a holistic evaluation of the microbial community through fingerprinting or by targeted monitoring of selected taxa. Here, we compared four different microbial community fingerprinting methods, i.e., amplicon sequencing, metaproteomics, metabolomics and phenotypics, in their ability to reflect the full-scale anaerobic digestion microbiome. The phenotypic fingerprinting reflects a, for anaerobic digestion, novel, single cell-based approach of direct microbial community fingerprinting. Three different digester types, i.e., sludge digesters, digesters treating agro-industrial waste and dry anaerobic digesters reflected different operational parameters. The α-diversity analysis yielded inconsistent results, especially for richness, across the different methods. In contrast, β-diversity analysis resulted in comparable profiles, even when translated into phyla or functions, with clear separation of the three digester types. In-depth analysis of each method's features i.e., operational taxonomic units, metaproteins, metabolites, and phenotypic traits, yielded certain similar features yet, also some clear differences between the different methods, which was related to the complexity of the anaerobic digestion process. In conclusion, phenotypic fingerprinting is a reliable, fast method for holistic monitoring of the anaerobic digestion microbiome, and the complementary identification of key features through other methods could give rise to a direct interpretation of anaerobic digestion process performance.
Project description:Sensitive models of climate change impacts would require a better integration of multi-omics approaches that connect the abundance and activity of microbial populations. Here, we show that climate is a fundamental driver of the protein abundance of microbial populations (metaproteomics), yet not their genomic abundance (16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing), supporting the hypothesis that metabolic activity may be more closely linked to climate than community composition.
Project description:Genotyping of RpoD mutants via amplicon sequencing from the following manuscript: \\"Systematic dissection of σ70 sequence diversity and function in bacteria\\" by Park and Wang (2020). Includes raw sequencing reads from samples from MAGE-seq single codon saturation mutagenesis and high-throughput fitness competition experiment as well as the RpoD ortholog mutants generated through recombineering and CRISPR selection.