metagenomics
Research Article | Host-Microbe BiologySupragingival Plaque Microbiome Ecology and Functional Potential in the Context of Health and DiseaseOral health has substantial economic importance, with over $100 billion spent on dental care in the United States annually. The microbiome plays a critical role in oral health, yet remains poorly classified. To address the question of how microbial diversity and function in the oral cavities of children relate to caries diagnosis, we surveyed the supragingival plaque biofilm microbiome in 44 juvenile twin pairs. Using shotgun sequencing...
Research Article | Host-Microbe BiologyGut Microbial and Metabolic Responses to Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium and Candida albicansThe gut microbiota is increasingly recognized for playing a critical role in human health and disease, especially in conferring resistance to both virulent pathogens such as Salmonella, which infects 1.2 million people in the United States every year (E. Scallan, R. M. Hoekstra, F. J. Angulo, R. V. Tauxe, et al., Emerg Infect Dis 17:7–15, 2011, https://doi.org/10.3201/eid1701....
Research Article | Applied and Environmental ScienceMembers of the Genus Methylobacter Are Inferred To Account for the Majority of Aerobic Methane Oxidation in Oxic Soils from a Freshwater WetlandHere we used soil metagenomics and metatranscriptomics to uncover novel members within the genus Methylobacter. We denote these closely related genomes as members of the lineage OWC Methylobacter. Despite the incredibly high microbial diversity in soils, here we present findings that unexpectedly showed that methane cycling was primarily mediated by a single genus for both methane production (“Candidatus...
- Research ArticleMicrobial Functional Gene Diversity Predicts Groundwater Contamination and Ecosystem Functioning
Disentangling the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning is an important but poorly understood topic in ecology. Predicting ecosystem functioning on the basis of biodiversity is even more difficult, particularly with microbial biomarkers. As an exploratory effort, this study used key microbial functional genes as biomarkers to provide predictive understanding of environmental contamination and ecosystem functioning...
- Research ArticleMetagenomes Reveal Global Distribution of Bacterial Steroid Catabolism in Natural, Engineered, and Host Environments
Microbial steroid degradation is a critical process for biomass decomposition in natural environments, for removal of important pollutants during wastewater treatment, and for pathogenesis of bacteria associated with tuberculosis and other bacteria. To date, microbial steroid degradation was mainly studied in a few model organisms, while the ecological significance of steroid degradation remained largely unexplored. This study provides...