Project description:The human gut is colonized by trillions of microorganisms that influence human health and disease through the metabolism of xenobiotics, including therapeutic drugs and antibiotics. The diversity and metabolic potential of the human gut microbiome have been extensively characterized, but it remains unclear which microorganisms are active and which perturbations can influence this activity. Here, we use flow cytometry, 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and metatranscriptomics to demonstrate that the human gut contains distinctive subsets of active and damaged microorganisms, primarily composed of Firmicutes, which display marked temporal variation. Short-term exposure to a panel of xenobiotics resulted in significant changes in the physiology and gene expression of this active microbiome. Xenobiotic-responsive genes were found across multiple bacterial phyla, encoding novel candidate proteins for antibiotic resistance, drug metabolism, and stress response. These results demonstrate the power of moving beyond DNA-based measurements of microbial communities to better understand their physiology and metabolism. RNA-Seq analysis of the human gut microbiome during exposure to antibiotics and therapeutic drugs.
Project description:The human gut is colonized by trillions of microorganisms that influence human health and disease through the metabolism of xenobiotics, including therapeutic drugs and antibiotics. The diversity and metabolic potential of the human gut microbiome have been extensively characterized, but it remains unclear which microorganisms are active and which perturbations can influence this activity. Here, we use flow cytometry, 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and metatranscriptomics to demonstrate that the human gut contains distinctive subsets of active and damaged microorganisms, primarily composed of Firmicutes, which display marked temporal variation. Short-term exposure to a panel of xenobiotics resulted in significant changes in the physiology and gene expression of this active microbiome. Xenobiotic-responsive genes were found across multiple bacterial phyla, encoding novel candidate proteins for antibiotic resistance, drug metabolism, and stress response. These results demonstrate the power of moving beyond DNA-based measurements of microbial communities to better understand their physiology and metabolism.
Project description:Aspergillus display an amazing level of diversity in physiologies, and environments that they occupy. Strategies for coping with diverse environmental stresses have evolved in different Aspergillus species. Therefore, Aspergillus are considered to be good models for investigating the adaptation and response to many natural and anthropogenic environmental stressors. Recent genome sequencing projects in several Aspergillus have provided insights into the molecular and genetic mechanisms underlying their responses to some environmental stressors. However, to better clarify the conserved and differentiated features of the adaptive response to specific stresses and to trace the evolutionary process of environmental adaptation and response in Aspergillus, insight from more Aspergillus species with different evolutionary positions, such as A. glaucus, and thus offer a large number of models of adaptation and response to various environmental stresses. Here, we report a high-quality reference genome assembly of A. glaucus CCHA from the surface of wild vegetation around saltern of Jilin, China, based on sequence data from whole-genome shotgun (WGS) sequencing platforms of Illumina solexa technologies. This assembly contains 106 scaffolds ( >1 Kb; N50 = ~0.795 Mb), has a length of ~28.9 Mb and covers ~97% of the predicted genome size (~120 Mb). Together with the data analyses from comprehensive transcriptomic surveys and comparative genomic analyses, we aim to obtain new insights into molecular mechanisms of the adaptation to living at high salt in the saltern
Project description:Primary objectives: The primary objective is to investigate circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) via deep sequencing for mutation detection and by whole genome sequencing for copy number analyses before start (baseline) with regorafenib and at defined time points during administration of regorafenib for treatment efficacy in colorectal cancer patients in terms of overall survival (OS).
Primary endpoints: circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) via deep sequencing for mutation detection and by whole genome sequencing for copy number analyses before start (baseline) with regorafenib and at defined time points during administration of regorafenib for treatment efficacy in colorectal cancer patients in terms of overall survival (OS).