Project description:16S rRNA gene sequences are commonly analyzed for taxonomic and phylogenetic studies because they contain variable regions that can help distinguish different genera. However, intra-genus distinction using variable region homology is often impossible due to the high overall sequence identities among closely related species, even though some residues may be conserved within respective species. Using a computational method that included the allelic diversity within individual genomes, we discovered that certain Escherichia and Shigella species can be distinguished by a multi-allelic 16S rRNA variable region single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). To evaluate the performance of 16S rRNAs with altered variable regions, we developed an in vivo system that measures the acceptance and distribution of variant 16S rRNAs into a large pool of natural versions supporting normal translation and growth. We found that 16S rRNAs containing evolutionarily disparate variable regions were underpopulated both in ribosomes and in active translation pools, even for an SNP. Overall, this study revealed that variable region sequences can substantially influence the performance of 16S rRNAs and that this biological constraint can be leveraged to justify refining taxonomic assignments of variable region sequence data. IMPORTANCE This study reevaluates the notion that 16S rRNA gene variable region sequences are uninformative for intra-genus classification and that single nucleotide variations within them have no consequence to strains that bear them. We demonstrated that the performance of 16S rRNAs in Escherichia coli can be negatively impacted by sequence changes in variable regions, even for single nucleotide changes that are native to closely related Escherichia and Shigella species; thus, biological performance is likely constraining the evolution of variable regions in bacteria. Further, the native nucleotide variations we tested occur in all strains of their respective species and across their multiple 16S rRNA gene copies, suggesting that these species evolved beyond what would be discerned from a consensus sequence comparison. Therefore, this work also reveals that the multiple 16S rRNA gene alleles found in most bacteria can provide more informative phylogenetic and taxonomic detail than a single reference allele.
Project description:The objective of the present study was to identify the nutrient utilization and the SCFA production potential of gut microbes during the first year of life. The 16S sequencing data represents 100 mother-child pairs, longitudinally for the infants (0, 3mo, 6mo and 12mo) and mothers 18 weeks pregnancy. We wanted to identify the SCFA composition in pregnant woman and their infants through the first year of life, and their correlation to gut bacteria and other influencal factors. Metaproteomics on selected infants were analyzed to look for nutrient sources used by potential SCFA producers.
Project description:Faecal microbiota and cytokine profiles of rural Cambodian infants linked to diet and diarrhoeal episodes (16S rRNA amplicon sequencing)
Project description:BackgroundMetagenomics is a rapidly growing field of research aimed at studying assemblages of uncultured organisms using various sequencing technologies, with the hope of understanding the true diversity of microbes, their functions, cooperation and evolution. There are two main approaches to metagenomics: amplicon sequencing, which involves PCR-targeted sequencing of a specific locus, often 16S rRNA, and random shotgun sequencing. Several tools or packages have been developed for analyzing communities using 16S rRNA sequences. Similarly, a number of tools exist for analyzing randomly sequenced DNA reads.ResultsWe describe an extension of the metagenome analysis tool MEGAN, which allows one to analyze 16S sequences. For the analysis all 16S sequences are blasted against the SILVA database. The result output is imported into MEGAN, using a synonym file that maps the SILVA accession numbers onto the NCBI taxonomy.ConclusionsEnvironmental samples are often studied using both targeted 16S rRNA sequencing and random shotgun sequencing. Hence tools are needed that allow one to analyze both types of data together, and one such tool is MEGAN. The ideas presented in this paper are implemented in MEGAN 4, which is available from: http://www-ab.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de/software/megan.
Project description:We mapped and sequenced the SLC26A5 of the American bullfrog from its inner ear cDNA using RNA-Seq. The frog SLC26A5 cDNA was 2,292 bp long, encoding a polypeptide of 763 amino acid residues, with 40% identity to mammals. After isolating the prestin gene of the frog, we generated a stable cell line transfected with this new coding gene and found it possessing similar electrophysiological features as the hair cells from the frog’s auditory organ. Our experiment demonstrated that the new coding gene could encode a functionally active protein conferring NLC to both frog HCs and the mammalian cell line.
Project description:BackgroundThe phylogeny of the genus Methanobrevibacter was established almost 25 years ago on the basis of the similarities of the 16S rRNA oligonucleotide catalogs. Since then, many 16S rRNA gene sequences of newly isolated strains or clones representing the genus Methanobrevibacter have been deposited. We tried to reorganize the 16S rRNA gene sequences of this genus and revise the taxonomic affiliation of the isolates and clones representing the genus Methanobrevibacter.ResultsThe phylogenetic analysis of the genus based on 786 bp aligned region from fifty-four representative sequences of the 120 available sequences for the genus revealed seven multi-member groups namely, Ruminantium, Smithii, Woesei, Curvatus, Arboriphilicus, Filiformis, and the Termite gut symbionts along with three separate lineages represented by Mbr. wolinii, Mbr. acididurans, and termite gut flagellate symbiont LHD12. The cophenetic correlation coefficient, a test for the ultrametric properties of the 16S rRNA gene sequences used for the tree was found to be 0.913 indicating the high degree of goodness of fit of the tree topology. A significant relationship was found between the 16S rRNA sequence similarity (S) and the extent of DNA hybridization (D) for the genus with the correlation coefficient (r) for logD and logS, and for [ln(-lnD) and ln(-lnS)] being 0.73 and 0.796 respectively. Our analysis revealed that for this genus, when S = 0.984, D would be <70% at least 99% of the times, and with 70% D as the species "cutoff", any 16S rRNA gene sequence showing <98% sequence similarity can be considered as a separate species. In addition, we deduced group specific signature positions that have remained conserved in evolution of the genus.ConclusionsA very significant relationship between D and S was found to exist for the genus Methanobrevibacter, implying that it is possible to predict D from S with a known precision for the genus. We propose to include the termite gut flagellate symbiont LHD12, the methanogenic endosymbionts of the ciliate Nyctotherus ovalis, and rat feces isolate RT reported earlier, as separate species of the genus Methanobrevibacter.
Project description:Prediction of taxonomy for marker gene sequences such as 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) is a fundamental task in microbiology. Most experimentally observed sequences are diverged from reference sequences of authoritatively named organisms, creating a challenge for prediction methods. I assessed the accuracy of several algorithms using cross-validation by identity, a new benchmark strategy which explicitly models the variation in distances between query sequences and the closest entry in a reference database. When the accuracy of genus predictions was averaged over a representative range of identities with the reference database (100%, 99%, 97%, 95% and 90%), all tested methods had ?50% accuracy on the currently-popular V4 region of 16S rRNA. Accuracy was found to fall rapidly with identity; for example, better methods were found to have V4 genus prediction accuracy of ?100% at 100% identity but ?50% at 97% identity. The relationship between identity and taxonomy was quantified as the probability that a rank is the lowest shared by a pair of sequences with a given pair-wise identity. With the V4 region, 95% identity was found to be a twilight zone where taxonomy is highly ambiguous because the probabilities that the lowest shared rank between pairs of sequences is genus, family, order or class are approximately equal.