Project description:DNA, RNA and protein were extracted from the culture and subjected to massive parallel sequencing and nano-LC-MS-MS respectively Combination of these methods enabled the reconstruction of the complete genome sequence of M oxyfera from the metagenome and identification of the functionally relevant enzymes and genes
Project description:The prevailing theory of autoimmune disease, that the body creates autoantibodies that attack “self,” was developed during an era when culture-based methods vastly underestimated the number of microbes capable of persisting in and on Homo sapiens. Thanks to the advent of culture-independent tools, the human body is now known to harbor billions of microbes whose collective genomes work in concert with the human genome. Thus, the human genome can no longer be studied in isolation. Some of these microbes persist by slowing the activity of the vitamin D receptor nuclear receptor, affecting the expression of endogenous antimicrobials and other key components of the innate immune system. It seems that bacteria that cause autoimmune disease accumulate over a lifetime, with individuals picking up pathogens with greater ease over time, as the immune response becomes increasingly compromised. Any one autoimmune disease is likely due to many different microbes within the metagenomic microbiota. This helps explain the high levels of comorbidity observed among patients with autoimmune conditions. What are commonly believed to be autoantibodies may instead be created in response to this metagenomic microbiota when the adaptive immune system is forced to deal with disintegration of infected cells. Similarly, haplotypes associated with autoimmune conditions vary widely among individuals and populations. They are more suggestive of a regional infectious model rather than a model in which an illness is caused by inherited variation of HLA haplotypes
Project description:BackgroundHuman milk contains a diverse population of bacteria that likely influences colonization of the infant gastrointestinal tract. Recent studies, however, have been limited to characterization of this microbial community by 16S rRNA analysis. In the present study, a metagenomic approach using Illumina sequencing of a pooled milk sample (ten donors) was employed to determine the genera of bacteria and the types of bacterial open reading frames in human milk that may influence bacterial establishment and stability in this primal food matrix. The human milk metagenome was also compared to that of breast-fed and formula-fed infants' feces (n = 5, each) and mothers' feces (n = 3) at the phylum level and at a functional level using open reading frame abundance. Additionally, immune-modulatory bacterial-DNA motifs were also searched for within human milk.ResultsThe bacterial community in human milk contained over 360 prokaryotic genera, with sequences aligning predominantly to the phyla of Proteobacteria (65%) and Firmicutes (34%), and the genera of Pseudomonas (61.1%), Staphylococcus (33.4%) and Streptococcus (0.5%). From assembled human milk-derived contigs, 30,128 open reading frames were annotated and assigned to functional categories. When compared to the metagenome of infants' and mothers' feces, the human milk metagenome was less diverse at the phylum level, and contained more open reading frames associated with nitrogen metabolism, membrane transport and stress response (P < 0.05). The human milk metagenome also contained a similar occurrence of immune-modulatory DNA motifs to that of infants' and mothers' fecal metagenomes.ConclusionsOur results further expand the complexity of the human milk metagenome and enforce the benefits of human milk ingestion on the microbial colonization of the infant gut and immunity. Discovery of immune-modulatory motifs in the metagenome of human milk indicates more exhaustive analyses of the functionality of the human milk metagenome are warranted.
Project description:Gut microbiome research is rapidly moving towards the functional characterization of the microbiota by means of shotgun meta-omics. Here, we selected a cohort of healthy subjects from an indigenous and monitored Sardinian population to analyze their gut microbiota using both shotgun metagenomics and shotgun metaproteomics. We found a considerable divergence between genetic potential and functional activity of the human healthy gut microbiota, in spite of a quite comparable taxonomic structure revealed by the two approaches. Investigation of inter-individual variability of taxonomic features revealed Bacteroides and Akkermansia as remarkably conserved and variable in abundance within the population, respectively. Firmicutes-driven butyrogenesis (mainly due to Faecalibacterium spp.) was shown to be the functional activity with the higher expression rate and the lower inter-individual variability in the study cohort, highlighting the key importance of the biosynthesis of this microbial by-product for the gut homeostasis. The taxon-specific contribution to functional activities and metabolic tasks was also examined, giving insights into the peculiar role of several gut microbiota members in carbohydrate metabolism (including polysaccharide degradation, glycan transport, glycolysis and short-chain fatty acid production). In conclusion, our results provide useful indications regarding the main functions actively exerted by the gut microbiota members of a healthy human cohort, and support metaproteomics as a valuable approach to investigate the functional role of the gut microbiota in health and disease.
Project description:Langerhans cells (LC) coordinate immune homeostasis at the human epidermis, proficent in initiating tolerogenic immune responses. To investigate the transcriptomic mediators of human LC tolerogenic immune responses, we performed single cell RNA-sequencing of steady state LC extracted via Liberase TM digestion and migratory LCs extracted from epidermal sheets.
Project description:The ontogeny of human Langerhans cells (LCs) remains poorly characterized, in particular the nature of LC precursors and the factors that may drive LC differentiation. Through a systematic transcriptomic analysis of TSLP-activated dendritic cells (DCs), we unexpectedly identified markers that have been associated with a skin-homing potential as well as with a LC phenotype. We performed transcriptomic analysis of TSLP-activated blood DCs, as compared to freshly purified, Medium-, and TNF-activated DCs. Among TSLP up-regulated genes, we identified molecules associated with skin homing, LC phenotype, and LC function, as determined by a literature-based survey. Conversely, genes not expressed in LCs were not found among TSLP-induced genes. Further experiments showed that TGF-β synergized with TSLP leading to the differentiation of blood BDCA-1+ DCs into bona fide Birbeck granule-positive LCs. The ontogeny of human Langerhans cells (LCs) remains poorly characterized, in particular the nature of LC precursors and the factors that may drive LC differentiation. Through a systematic transcriptomic analysis of TSLP-activated dendritic cells (DCs), we unexpectedly identified markers that have been associated with a skin-homing potential as well as with a LC phenotype. We performed transcriptomic analysis of TSLP-activated blood DCs, as compared to freshly purified, Medium-, and TNF-activated DCs. Among TSLP up-regulated genes, we identified molecules associated with skin homing, LC phenotype, and LC function, as determined by a literature-based survey. Conversely, genes not expressed in LCs were not found among TSLP-induced genes. Further experiments showed that TGF-β synergized with TSLP leading to the differentiation of blood BDCA-1+ DCs into bona fide Birbeck granule-positive LCs.
Project description:D-galactose orally intake ameliorate DNCB-induced atopic dermatitis by modulating microbiota composition and quorum sensing. The increased abundance of bacteroidetes and decreased abundance of firmicutes was confirmed. By D-galactose treatment, Bacteroides population was increased and prevotella, ruminococcus was decreased which is related to atopic dermatitis.
Project description:The main goal of the project is the study the associations between the gut metagenome and human health. The dataset contains data for n=7211 FINRISK 2002 participants who underwent fecal sampling. Demultiplexed shallow shotgun metagenomic sequences were quality filtered and adapter trimmed using Atropos (Didion et al., 2017), and human filtered using Bowtie2 (Langmead and Salzberg, 2012).