Publications

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Publications in peer reviewed journals

3 Publications found
  • Extending and improving metagenomic taxonomic profiling with uncharacterized species using MetaPhlAn 4.

    Blanco-Míguez A, Beghini F, Cumbo F, McIver LJ, Thompson KN, Zolfo M, Manghi P, Dubois L, Huang KD, Thomas AM, Nickols WA, Piccinno G, Piperni E, Punčochář M, Valles-Colomer M, Tett A, Giordano F, Davies R, Wolf J, Berry SE, Spector TD, Franzosa EA, Pasolli E, Asnicar F, Huttenhower C, Segata N
    2023 - Nat Biotechnol, in press

    Abstract: 

    Metagenomic assembly enables new organism discovery from microbial communities, but it can only capture few abundant organisms from most metagenomes. Here we present MetaPhlAn 4, which integrates information from metagenome assemblies and microbial isolate genomes for more comprehensive metagenomic taxonomic profiling. From a curated collection of 1.01 M prokaryotic reference and metagenome-assembled genomes, we define unique marker genes for 26,970 species-level genome bins, 4,992 of them taxonomically unidentified at the species level. MetaPhlAn 4 explains ~20% more reads in most international human gut microbiomes and >40% in less-characterized environments such as the rumen microbiome and proves more accurate than available alternatives on synthetic evaluations while also reliably quantifying organisms with no cultured isolates. Application of the method to >24,500 metagenomes highlights previously undetected species to be strong biomarkers for host conditions and lifestyles in human and mouse microbiomes and shows that even previously uncharacterized species can be genetically profiled at the resolution of single microbial strains.

  • Questioning the fetal microbiome illustrates pitfalls of low-biomass microbial studies.

    Kennedy KM, de Goffau MC, Perez-Muñoz ME, Arrieta MC, Bäckhed F, Bork P, Braun T, Bushman FD, Dore J, de Vos WM, Earl AM, Eisen JA, Elovitz MA, Ganal-Vonarburg SC, Gänzle MG, Garrett WS, Hall LJ, Hornef MW, Huttenhower C, Konnikova L, Lebeer S, Macpherson AJ, Massey RC, McHardy AC, Koren O, Lawley TD, Ley RE, O'Mahony L, O'Toole PW, Pamer EG, Parkhill J, Raes J, Rattei T, Salonen A, Segal E, Segata N, Shanahan F, Sloboda DM, Smith GCS, Sokol H, Spector TD, Surette MG, Tannock GW, Walker AW, Yassour M, Walter J
    2023 - Nature, 7945: 639-649

    Abstract: 

    Whether the human fetus and the prenatal intrauterine environment (amniotic fluid and placenta) are stably colonized by microbial communities in a healthy pregnancy remains a subject of debate. Here we evaluate recent studies that characterized microbial populations in human fetuses from the perspectives of reproductive biology, microbial ecology, bioinformatics, immunology, clinical microbiology and gnotobiology, and assess possible mechanisms by which the fetus might interact with microorganisms. Our analysis indicates that the detected microbial signals are likely the result of contamination during the clinical procedures to obtain fetal samples or during DNA extraction and DNA sequencing. Furthermore, the existence of live and replicating microbial populations in healthy fetal tissues is not compatible with fundamental concepts of immunology, clinical microbiology and the derivation of germ-free mammals. These conclusions are important to our understanding of human immune development and illustrate common pitfalls in the microbial analyses of many other low-biomass environments. The pursuit of a fetal microbiome serves as a cautionary example of the challenges of sequence-based microbiome studies when biomass is low or absent, and emphasizes the need for a trans-disciplinary approach that goes beyond contamination controls by also incorporating biological, ecological and mechanistic concepts.

  • The person-to-person transmission landscape of the gut and oral microbiomes.

    Valles-Colomer M, Blanco-Míguez A, Manghi P, Asnicar F, Dubois L, Golzato D, Armanini F, Cumbo F, Huang KD, Manara S, Masetti G, Pinto F, Piperni E, Punčochář M, Ricci L, Zolfo M, Farrant O, Goncalves A, Selma-Royo M, Binetti AG, Becerra JE, Han B, Lusingu J, Amuasi J, Amoroso L, Visconti A, Steves CM, Falchi M, Filosi M, Tett A, Last A, Xu Q, Qin N, Qin H, May J, Eibach D, Corrias MV, Ponzoni M, Pasolli E, Spector TD, Domenici E, Collado MC, Segata N
    2023 - Nature, 7946: 125-135

    Abstract: 

    The human microbiome is an integral component of the human body and a co-determinant of several health conditions. However, the extent to which interpersonal relations shape the individual genetic makeup of the microbiome and its transmission within and across populations remains largely unknown. Here, capitalizing on more than 9,700 human metagenomes and computational strain-level profiling, we detected extensive bacterial strain sharing across individuals (more than 10 million instances) with distinct mother-to-infant, intra-household and intra-population transmission patterns. Mother-to-infant gut microbiome transmission was considerable and stable during infancy (around 50% of the same strains among shared species (strain-sharing rate)) and remained detectable at older ages. By contrast, the transmission of the oral microbiome occurred largely horizontally and was enhanced by the duration of cohabitation. There was substantial strain sharing among cohabiting individuals, with 12% and 32% median strain-sharing rates for the gut and oral microbiomes, and time since cohabitation affected strain sharing more than age or genetics did. Bacterial strain sharing additionally recapitulated host population structures better than species-level profiles did. Finally, distinct taxa appeared as efficient spreaders across transmission modes and were associated with different predicted bacterial phenotypes linked with out-of-host survival capabilities. The extent of microorganism transmission that we describe underscores its relevance in human microbiome studies, especially those on non-infectious, microbiome-associated diseases.

Book chapters and other publications

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