Eren A. Murat

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Eren

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A. Murat

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0000-0001-9013-4827

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The gut microbiota of rural Papua New Guineans : composition, diversity patterns, and ecological processes

(Cell Press, 2015-04-16) Martinez, Ines ; Stegen, James C. ; Maldonado-Gomez, Maria X. ; Eren, A. Murat ; Siba, Peter M. ; Greenhill, Andrew R. ; Walter, Jens

Although recent research revealed an impact of westernization on diversity and composition of the human gut microbiota, the exact consequences on metacommunity characteristics are insufficiently understood, and the underlying ecological mechanisms have not been elucidated. Here, we have compared the fecal microbiota of adults from two non-industrialized regions in Papua New Guinea (PNG) with that of United States (US) residents. Papua New Guineans harbor communities with greater bacterial diversity, lower inter-individual variation, vastly different abundance profiles, and bacterial lineages undetectable in US residents. A quantification of the ecological processes that govern community assembly identified bacterial dispersal as the dominant process that shapes the microbiome in PNG but not in the US. These findings suggest that the microbiome alterations detected in industrialized societies might arise from modern lifestyle factors limiting bacterial dispersal, which has implications for human health and the development of strategies aimed to redress the impact of westernization.
SeaBase : a multispecies transcriptomic resource and platform for gene network inference

( 2014-05) Fischer, Antje H. L. ; Mozzherin, Dmitry ; Eren, A. Murat ; Lans, Kristen D. ; Wilson, Nathan ; Cosentino, Carlo ; Smith, Joel

Marine and aquatic animals are extraordinarily useful as models for identifying mechanisms of development and evolution, regeneration, resistance to cancer, longevity and symbiosis, among many other areas of research. This is due to the great diversity of these organisms and their wide-ranging capabilities. Genomics tools are essential for taking advantage of these “free lessons” of nature. However, genomics and transcriptomics are challenging in emerging model systems. Here, we present SeaBase, a tool for helping to meet these needs. Specifically, SeaBase provides a platform for sharing and searching transcriptome data. More importantly, SeaBase will support a growing number of tools for inferring gene network mechanisms. The first dataset available on SeaBase is a developmental transcriptome profile of the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis (Anthozoa, Cnidaria). Additional datasets are currently being prepared and we are aiming to expand SeaBase to include user-supplied data for any number of marine and aquatic organisms, thereby supporting many potentially new models for gene network studies.
DESMAN : a new tool for de novo extraction of strains from metagenomes

(BioMed Central, 2017-09-21) Quince, Christopher ; Delmont, Tom O. ; Raguideau, Sébastien ; Alneberg, Johannes ; Darling, Aaron ; Collins, Gavin ; Eren, A. Murat

We introduce DESMAN for De novo Extraction of Strains from Metagenomes. Large multi-sample metagenomes are being generated but strain variation results in fragmentary co-assemblies. Current algorithms can bin contigs into metagenome-assembled genomes but are unable to resolve strain-level variation. DESMAN identifies variants in core genes and uses co-occurrence across samples to link variants into haplotypes and abundance profiles. These are then searched for against non-core genes to determine the accessory genome of each strain. We validated DESMAN on a complex 50-species 210-genome 96-sample synthetic mock data set and then applied it to the Tara Oceans microbiome.
Patient-specific Bacteroides genome variants in pouchitis

(American Society for Microbiology, 2016-11-15) Vineis, Joseph H. ; Ringus, Daina L. ; Morrison, Hilary G. ; Delmont, Tom O. ; Dalal, Sushila R. ; Raffals, Laura E. ; Antonopoulos, Dionysios A. ; Rubin, David T. ; Eren, A. Murat ; Chang, Eugene B. ; Sogin, Mitchell L.

A 2-year longitudinal microbiome study of 22 patients who underwent colectomy with an ileal pouch anal anastomosis detected significant increases in distinct populations of Bacteroides during 9 of 11 patient visits that coincided with inflammation (pouchitis). Oligotyping and metagenomic short-read annotation identified Bacteroides populations that occurred in early samples, bloomed during inflammation, and reappeared after antibiotic treatment. Targeted cultivation of Bacteroides isolates from the same individual at multiple time points and from several patients detected subtle genomic changes, including the identification of rapidly evolving genomic elements that differentiate isogenic strains of Bacteroides fragilis from the mucosa versus lumen. Each patient harbored Bacteroides spp. that are closely related to commonly occurring clinical isolates, including Bacteroides ovatus, B. thetaiotaomicron, B. vulgatus, and B. fragilis, which contained unique loci in different patients for synthesis of capsular polysaccharides. The presence of unique Bacteroides capsular polysaccharide loci within different hosts and between the lumen and mucosa may represent adaptations to stimulate, suppress, and evade host-specific immune responses at different microsites of the ileal pouch.
New insights into microbial ecology through subtle nucleotide variation

(Frontiers Media, 2016-08-24) Eren, A. Murat ; Sogin, Mitchell L. ; Maignien, Lois

Characterizing the community structure of naturally occurring microbes through marker gene amplicons has gained widespread acceptance for profiling microbial populations. The 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene provides a suitable target for most studies since (1) it meets the criteria for robust markers of evolution, e.g., both conserved and rapidly evolving regions that do not undergo horizontal gene transfer, (2) microbial ecologists have identified widely adopted primers and protocols for generating amplicons for sequencing, (3) analyses of both cultivars and environmental DNA have generated well-curated databases for taxonomic profiling, and (4) bioinformaticians and computational biologists have published comprehensive software tools for interpreting the data and generating publication-ready figures. Since the initial descriptions of high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons to survey microbial diversity, we have witnessed an explosion of association-based inferences of interactions between microbes and their environment.
A few Pseudomonas oligotypes dominate in the meat and dairy processing environment

(Frontiers Media, 2017-03-02) Stellato, Giuseppina ; Utter, Daniel R. ; Voorhis, Andy ; De Angelis, Maria ; Eren, A. Murat ; Ercolini, Danilo

The occurrence of bacteria in the food processing environments plays a key role in food contamination and development of spoilage. Species of the genus Pseudomonas are recognized as major food spoilers and the capability to actually determine spoilage can be species- as well as strain-dependent. In order to improve the taxonomic resolution of 16S rRNA gene amplicons, in this study we used oligotyping to investigate the diversity of Pseudomonas populations in meat and dairy processing environments. Sequences of the V1–V3 regions from previous studies were used, including environmental swabs and food samples from both meat and dairy processing plants. We showed that the most frequently found oligotypes belonged to Pseudomonas fragi and P. fluorescens, that the most abundant oligotypes co-occurred, and were shared between the meat and dairy datasets. All the oligotypes occurring in foods were also identified in the environmental samples of the corresponding plants, highlighting the important role of the environment as a source of strains for food contamination. Oligotypes of the same species showed different levels depending on food processing and type of sample, suggesting that different strains of the same species can have different adaptation efficiency, leading to resilient bacterial associations.
Exploring the diversity of Gardnerella vaginalis in the genitourinary tract microbiota of monogamous couples through subtle nucleotide variation

(Public Library of Science, 2011-10-25) Eren, A. Murat ; Zozaya, Marcela ; Taylor, Christopher M. ; Dowd, Scot E. ; Martin, David H. ; Ferris, Michael J.

Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is an enigmatic disease of unknown origin that affects a large percentage of women. The vaginal microbiota of women with BV is associated with serious sequelae, including abnormal pregnancies. The etiology of BV is not fully understood, however, it has been suggested that it is transmissible, and that G. vaginalis may be an etiological agent. Studies using enzymatic assays to define G. vaginalis biotypes, as well as more recent genomic comparisons of G. vaginalis isolates from symptomatic and asymptomatic women, suggest that particular G. vaginalis strains may play a key role in the pathogenesis of BV. To explore G. vaginalis diversity, distribution and sexual transmission, we developed a Shannon entropy-based method to analyze low-level sequence variation in 65,710 G. vaginalis 16S rRNA gene segments that were PCR-amplified from vaginal samples of 53 monogamous women and from urethral and penile skin samples of their male partners. We observed a high degree of low-level diversity among G. vaginalis sequences with a total of 46 unique sequence variants (oligotypes), and also found strong correlations of these oligotypes between sexual partners. Even though Gram stain-defined normal and some Gram stain-defined intermediate oligotype profiles clustered together in UniFrac analysis, no single G. vaginalis oligotype was found to be specific to BV or normal vaginal samples. This study describes a novel method for investigating G. vaginalis diversity at a low level of taxonomic discrimination. The findings support cultivation-based studies that indicate sexual partners harbor the same strains of G. vaginalis. This study also highlights the fact that a few, reproducible nucleotide variations within the 16S rRNA gene can reveal clinical or epidemiological associations that would be missed by genus-level or species-level categorization of 16S rRNA data.
Bacterial communities in penile skin, male urethra, and vaginas of heterosexual couples with and without bacterial vaginosis

(BioMed Central, 2016-04-19) Zozaya, Marcela ; Ferris, Michael J. ; Siren, Julia D. ; Lillis, Rebecca ; Myers, Leann ; Nsuami, M. Jacques ; Eren, A. Murat ; Brown, Jonathan ; Taylor, Christopher M. ; Martin, David H.

The epidemiology of bacterial vaginosis (BV) suggests it is sexually transmissible, yet no transmissible agent has been identified. It is probable that BV-associated bacterial communities are transferred from male to female partners during intercourse; however, the microbiota of sexual partners has not been well-studied. Pyrosequencing analysis of PCR-amplified 16S rDNA was used to examine BV-associated bacteria in monogamous couples with and without BV using vaginal, male urethral, and penile skin specimens. The penile skin and urethral microbiota of male partners of women with BV was significantly more similar to the vaginal microbiota of their female partner compared to the vaginal microbiota of non-partner women with BV. This was not the case for male partners of women with normal vaginal microbiota. Specific BV-associated species were concordant in women with BV and their male partners. In monogamous heterosexual couples in which the woman has BV, the significantly higher similarity between the vaginal microbiota and the penile skin and urethral microbiota of the male partner, supports the hypothesis that sexual exchange of BV-associated bacterial taxa is common.
Gut microbes contribute to variation in solid organ transplant outcomes in mice

(BMC, 2018-05-25) McIntosh, Christine M. ; Chen, Luqiu ; Shaiber, Alon ; Eren, A. Murat ; Alegre, Maria-Luisa

Solid organ transplant recipients show heterogeneity in the occurrence and timing of acute rejection episodes. Understanding the factors responsible for such variability in patient outcomes may lead to improved diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. Rejection kinetics of transplanted organs mainly depends on the extent of genetic disparities between donor and recipient, but a role for environmental factors is emerging. We have recently shown that major alterations of the microbiota following broad-spectrum antibiotics, or use of germ-free animals, promoted longer skin graft survival in mice. Here, we tested whether spontaneous differences in microbial colonization between genetically similar individuals can contribute to variability in graft rejection kinetics. We compared rejection kinetics of minor mismatched skin grafts in C57BL/6 mice from Jackson Laboratory (Jax) and Taconic Farms (Tac), genetically similar animals colonized by different commensal microbes. Female Tac mice rejected skin grafts from vendor-matched males more quickly than Jax mice. We observed prolonged graft survival in Tac mice when they were exposed to Jax mice microbiome through co-housing or fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) by gastric gavage. In contrast, exposure to Tac mice did not change graft rejection kinetics in Jax mice, suggesting a dominant suppressive effect of Jax microbiota. High-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons from Jax and Tac mice fecal samples confirmed a convergence of microbiota composition after cohousing or fecal transfer. Our analysis of amplicon data associated members of a single bacterial genus, Alistipes, with prolonged graft survival. Consistent with this finding, members of the genus Alistipes were absent in a separate Tac cohort, in which fecal transfer from Jax mice failed to prolong graft survival. These results demonstrate that differences in resident microbiome in healthy individuals may translate into distinct kinetics of graft rejection, and contribute to interpersonal variability in graft outcomes. The association between Alistipes and prolonged skin graft survival in mice suggests that members of this genus might affect host physiology, including at sites distal to the gastrointestinal tract. Overall, these findings allude to a potential therapeutic role for specific gut microbes to promote graft survival through the administration of probiotics, or FMT.
A single genus in the gut microbiome reflects host preference and specificity

(Nature Publishing Group, 2014-06-17) Eren, A. Murat ; Sogin, Mitchell L. ; Morrison, Hilary G. ; Vineis, Joseph H. ; Fisher, Jenny C. ; Newton, Ryan J. ; McLellan, Sandra L.

Delineating differences in gut microbiomes of human and animal hosts contributes towards understanding human health and enables new strategies for detecting reservoirs of waterborne human pathogens. We focused upon Blautia, a single microbial genus that is important for nutrient assimilation as preliminary work suggested host-related patterns within members of this genus. In our dataset of 57 M sequence reads of the V6 region of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene in samples collected from seven host species, we identified 200 high-resolution taxonomic units within Blautia using oligotyping. Our analysis revealed 13 host-specific oligotypes that occurred exclusively in fecal samples of humans (three oligotypes), swine (six oligotypes), cows (one oligotype), deer (one oligotype), or chickens (two oligotypes). We identified an additional 171 oligotypes that exhibited differential abundance patterns among all the host species. Blautia oligotypes in the human population obtained from sewage and fecal samples displayed remarkable continuity. Oligotypes from only 10 Brazilian human fecal samples collected from individuals in a rural village encompassed 97% of all Blautia oligotypes found in a Brazilian sewage sample from a city of three million people. Further, 75% of the oligotypes in Brazilian human fecal samples matched those in US sewage samples, implying that a universal set of Blautia strains may be shared among culturally and geographically distinct human populations. Such strains can serve as universal markers to assess human fecal contamination in environmental samples. Our results indicate that host-specificity and host-preference patterns of organisms within this genus are driven by host physiology more than dietary habits.
VAMPS : a website for visualization and analysis of microbial population structures

(BioMed Central, 2014-02-05) Huse, Susan M. ; Mark Welch, David B. ; Voorhis, Andy ; Shipunova, Anna ; Morrison, Hilary G. ; Eren, A. Murat ; Sogin, Mitchell L.

The advent of next-generation DNA sequencing platforms has revolutionized molecular microbial ecology by making the detailed analysis of complex communities over time and space a tractable research pursuit for small research groups. However, the ability to generate 105–108 reads with relative ease brings with it many downstream complications. Beyond the computational resources and skills needed to process and analyze data, it is difficult to compare datasets in an intuitive and interactive manner that leads to hypothesis generation and testing. We developed the free web service VAMPS (Visualization and Analysis of Microbial Population Structures, http://vamps.mbl.edu webcite) to address these challenges and to facilitate research by individuals or collaborating groups working on projects with large-scale sequencing data. Users can upload marker gene sequences and associated metadata; reads are quality filtered and assigned to both taxonomic structures and to taxonomy-independent clusters. A simple point-and-click interface allows users to select for analysis any combination of their own or their collaborators’ private data and data from public projects, filter these by their choice of taxonomic and/or abundance criteria, and then explore these data using a wide range of analytic methods and visualizations. Each result is extensively hyperlinked to other analysis and visualization options, promoting data exploration and leading to a greater understanding of data relationships. VAMPS allows researchers using marker gene sequence data to analyze the diversity of microbial communities and the relationships between communities, to explore these analyses in an intuitive visual context, and to download data, results, and images for publication. VAMPS obviates the need for individual research groups to make the considerable investment in computational infrastructure and bioinformatic support otherwise necessary to process, analyze, and interpret massive amounts of next-generation sequence data. Any web-capable device can be used to upload, process, explore, and extract data and results from VAMPS. VAMPS encourages researchers to share sequence and metadata, and fosters collaboration between researchers of disparate biomes who recognize common patterns in shared data.
Humpback whale populations share a core skin bacterial community : towards a health index for marine mammals?

(Public Library of Science, 2014-03-26) Apprill, Amy ; Robbins, Jooke ; Eren, A. Murat ; Pack, Adam A. ; Reveillaud, Julie ; Mattila, David K. ; Moore, Michael J. ; Niemeyer, Misty E. ; Moore, Kathleen M. T. ; Mincer, Tracy J.

Microbes are now well regarded for their important role in mammalian health. The microbiology of skin – a unique interface between the host and environment - is a major research focus in human health and skin disorders, but is less explored in other mammals. Here, we report on a cross-population study of the skin-associated bacterial community of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae), and examine the potential for a core bacterial community and its variability with host (endogenous) or geographic/environmental (exogenous) specific factors. Skin biopsies or freshly sloughed skin from 56 individuals were sampled from populations in the North Atlantic, North Pacific and South Pacific oceans and bacteria were characterized using 454 pyrosequencing of SSU rRNA genes. Phylogenetic and statistical analyses revealed the ubiquity and abundance of bacteria belonging to the Flavobacteria genus Tenacibaculum and the Gammaproteobacteria genus Psychrobacter across the whale populations. Scanning electron microscopy of skin indicated that microbial cells colonize the skin surface. Despite the ubiquity of Tenacibaculum and Psychrobater spp., the relative composition of the skin-bacterial community differed significantly by geographic area as well as metabolic state of the animals (feeding versus starving during migration and breeding), suggesting that both exogenous and endogenous factors may play a role in influencing the skin-bacteria. Further, characteristics of the skin bacterial community from these free-swimming individuals were assembled and compared to two entangled and three dead individuals, revealing a decrease in the central or core bacterial community members (Tenacibaculum and Psychrobater spp.), as well as the emergence of potential pathogens in the latter cases. This is the first discovery of a cross-population, shared skin bacterial community. This research suggests that the skin bacteria may be connected to humpback health and immunity and could possibly serve as a useful index for health and skin disorder monitoring of threatened and endangered marine mammals.
DRISEE overestimates errors in metagenomic sequencing data

(Oxford University Press, 2013-05-22) Eren, A. Murat ; Morrison, Hilary G. ; Huse, Susan M. ; Sogin, Mitchell L.

The extremely high error rates reported by Keegan et al. in ‘A platform-independent method for detecting errors in metagenomic sequencing data: DRISEE’ (PLoS Comput Biol 2012;8:e1002541) for many next-generation sequencing datasets prompted us to re-examine their results. Our analysis reveals that the presence of conserved artificial sequences, e.g. Illumina adapters, and other naturally occurring sequence motifs accounts for most of the reported errors. We conclude that DRISEE reports inflated levels of sequencing error, particularly for Illumina data. Tools offered for evaluating large datasets need scrupulous review before they are implemented.
Reconstructing rare soil microbial genomes using in situ enrichments and metagenomics

(Frontiers Media, 2015-04-30) Delmont, Tom O. ; Eren, A. Murat ; Maccario, Lorrie ; Prestat, Emmanuel ; Esen, Ozcan C. ; Pelletier, Eric ; Le Paslier, Denis ; Simonet, Pascal ; Vogel, Timothy M.

Despite extensive direct sequencing efforts and advanced analytical tools, reconstructing microbial genomes from soil using metagenomics have been challenging due to the tremendous diversity and relatively uniform distribution of genomes found in this system. Here we used enrichment techniques in an attempt to decrease the complexity of a soil microbiome prior to sequencing by submitting it to a range of physical and chemical stresses in 23 separate microcosms for 4 months. The metagenomic analysis of these microcosms at the end of the treatment yielded 540 Mb of assembly using standard de novo assembly techniques (a total of 559,555 genes and 29,176 functions), from which we could recover novel bacterial genomes, plasmids and phages. The recovered genomes belonged to Leifsonia (n = 2), Rhodanobacter (n = 5), Acidobacteria (n = 2), Sporolactobacillus (n = 2, novel nitrogen fixing taxon), Ktedonobacter (n = 1, second representative of the family Ktedonobacteraceae), Streptomyces (n = 3, novel polyketide synthase modules), and Burkholderia (n = 2, includes mega-plasmids conferring mercury resistance). Assembled genomes averaged to 5.9 Mb, with relative abundances ranging from rare (<0.0001%) to relatively abundant (>0.01%) in the original soil microbiome. Furthermore, we detected them in samples collected from geographically distant locations, particularly more in temperate soils compared to samples originating from high-latitude soils and deserts. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first successful attempt to assemble multiple bacterial genomes directly from a soil sample. Our findings demonstrate that developing pertinent enrichment conditions can stimulate environmental genomic discoveries that would have been impossible to achieve with canonical approaches that focus solely upon post-sequencing data treatment.
Identifying contamination with advanced visualization and analysis practices : metagenomic approaches for eukaryotic genome assemblies

(PeerJ, 2016-03-29) Delmont, Tom O. ; Eren, A. Murat

High-throughput sequencing provides a fast and cost-effective mean to recover genomes of organisms from all domains of life. However, adequate curation of the assembly results against potential contamination of non-target organisms requires advanced bioinformatics approaches and practices. Here, we re-analyzed the sequencing data generated for the tardigrade Hypsibius dujardini, and created a holistic display of the eukaryotic genome assembly using DNA data originating from two groups and eleven sequencing libraries. By using bacterial single-copy genes, k-mer frequencies, and coverage values of scaffolds we could identify and characterize multiple near-complete bacterial genomes from the raw assembly, and curate a 182 Mbp draft genome for H. dujardini supported by RNA-Seq data. Our results indicate that most contaminant scaffolds were assembled from Moleculo long-read libraries, and most of these contaminants have differed between library preparations. Our re-analysis shows that visualization and curation of eukaryotic genome assemblies can benefit from tools designed to address the needs of today’s microbiologists, who are constantly challenged by the difficulties associated with the identification of distinct microbial genomes in complex environmental metagenomes.
Dynamics of tongue microbial communities with single-nucleotide resolution using oligotyping

(Frontiers Media, 2014-11-07) Mark Welch, Jessica L. ; Utter, Daniel R. ; Rossetti, Blair J. ; Mark Welch, David B. ; Eren, A. Murat ; Borisy, Gary G.

The human mouth is an excellent system to study the dynamics of microbial communities and their interactions with their host. We employed oligotyping to analyze, with single-nucleotide resolution, oral microbial 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequence data from a time course sampled from the tongue of two individuals, and we interpret our results in the context of oligotypes that we previously identified in the oral data from the Human Microbiome Project. Our previous work established that many of these oligotypes had dramatically different distributions between individuals and across oral habitats, suggesting that they represented functionally different organisms. Here we demonstrate the presence of a consistent tongue microbiome but with rapidly fluctuating proportions of the characteristic taxa. In some cases closely related oligotypes representing strains or variants within a single species displayed fluctuating relative abundances over time, while in other cases an initially dominant oligotype was replaced by another oligotype of the same species. We use this high temporal and taxonomic level of resolution to detect correlated changes in oligotype abundance that could indicate which taxa likely interact synergistically or occupy similar habitats, and which likely interact antagonistically or prefer distinct habitats. For example, we found a strong correlation in abundance over time between two oligotypes from different families of Gamma Proteobacteria, suggesting a close functional or ecological relationship between them. In summary, the tongue is colonized by a microbial community of moderate complexity whose proportional abundance fluctuates widely on time scales of days. The drivers and functional consequences of these community dynamics are not known, but we expect they will prove tractable to future, targeted studies employing taxonomically resolved analysis of high-throughput sequencing data sampled at appropriate temporal intervals and spatial scales.
Anvi’o : an advanced analysis and visualization platform for ‘omics data

(PeerJ, 2015-10-08) Eren, A. Murat ; Esen, Ozcan C. ; Quince, Christopher ; Vineis, Joseph H. ; Morrison, Hilary G. ; Sogin, Mitchell L. ; Delmont, Tom O.

Advances in high-throughput sequencing and ‘omics technologies are revolutionizing studies of naturally occurring microbial communities. Comprehensive investigations of microbial lifestyles require the ability to interactively organize and visualize genetic information and to incorporate subtle differences that enable greater resolution of complex data. Here we introduce anvi’o, an advanced analysis and visualization platform that offers automated and human-guided characterization of microbial genomes in metagenomic assemblies, with interactive interfaces that can link ‘omics data from multiple sources into a single, intuitive display. Its extensible visualization approach distills multiple dimensions of information about each contig, offering a dynamic and unified work environment for data exploration, manipulation, and reporting. Using anvi’o, we re-analyzed publicly available datasets and explored temporal genomic changes within naturally occurring microbial populations through de novo characterization of single nucleotide variations, and linked cultivar and single-cell genomes with metagenomic and metatranscriptomic data. Anvi’o is an open-source platform that empowers researchers without extensive bioinformatics skills to perform and communicate in-depth analyses on large ‘omics datasets.
Minimum entropy decomposition : unsupervised oligotyping for sensitive partitioning of high-throughput marker gene sequences

(Nature Publishing Group, 2014-10-17) Eren, A. Murat ; Morrison, Hilary G. ; Lescault, Pamela J. ; Reveillaud, Julie ; Vineis, Joseph H. ; Sogin, Mitchell L.

Molecular microbial ecology investigations often employ large marker gene datasets, for example, ribosomal RNAs, to represent the occurrence of single-cell genomes in microbial communities. Massively parallel DNA sequencing technologies enable extensive surveys of marker gene libraries that sometimes include nearly identical sequences. Computational approaches that rely on pairwise sequence alignments for similarity assessment and de novo clustering with de facto similarity thresholds to partition high-throughput sequencing datasets constrain fine-scale resolution descriptions of microbial communities. Minimum Entropy Decomposition (MED) provides a computationally efficient means to partition marker gene datasets into ‘MED nodes’, which represent homogeneous operational taxonomic units. By employing Shannon entropy, MED uses only the information-rich nucleotide positions across reads and iteratively partitions large datasets while omitting stochastic variation. When applied to analyses of microbiomes from two deep-sea cryptic sponges Hexadella dedritifera and Hexadella cf. dedritifera, MED resolved a key Gammaproteobacteria cluster into multiple MED nodes that are specific to different sponges, and revealed that these closely related sympatric sponge species maintain distinct microbial communities. MED analysis of a previously published human oral microbiome dataset also revealed that taxa separated by less than 1% sequence variation distributed to distinct niches in the oral cavity. The information theory-guided decomposition process behind the MED algorithm enables sensitive discrimination of closely related organisms in marker gene amplicon datasets without relying on extensive computational heuristics and user supervision.
Genomic variation in microbial populations inhabiting the marine subseafloor at deep-sea hydrothermal vents

(Nature Publishing Group, 2017-10-24) Anderson, Rika E. ; Reveillaud, Julie ; Reddington, Emily ; Delmont, Tom O. ; Eren, A. Murat ; McDermott, Jill M. ; Seewald, Jeffrey S. ; Huber, Julie A.

Little is known about evolutionary drivers of microbial populations in the warm subseafloor of deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Here we reconstruct 73 metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) from two geochemically distinct vent fields in the Mid-Cayman Rise to investigate patterns of genomic variation within subseafloor populations. Low-abundance populations with high intra-population diversity coexist alongside high-abundance populations with low genomic diversity, with taxonomic differences in patterns of genomic variation between the mafic Piccard and ultramafic Von Damm vent fields. Populations from Piccard are significantly enriched in nonsynonymous mutations, suggesting stronger purifying selection in Von Damm relative to Piccard. Comparison of nine Sulfurovum MAGs reveals two high-coverage, low-diversity MAGs from Piccard enriched in unique genes related to the cellular membrane, suggesting these populations were subject to distinct evolutionary pressures that may correlate with genes related to nutrient uptake, biofilm formation, or viral invasion. These results are consistent with distinct evolutionary histories between geochemically different vent fields, with implications for understanding evolutionary processes in subseafloor microbial populations.
Sewage reflects the microbiomes of human populations

(American Society for Microbiology, 2015-02-24) Newton, Ryan J. ; McLellan, Sandra L. ; Dila, Deborah K. ; Vineis, Joseph H. ; Morrison, Hilary G. ; Eren, A. Murat ; Sogin, Mitchell L.

Molecular characterizations of the gut microbiome from individual human stool samples have identified community patterns that correlate with age, disease, diet, and other human characteristics, but resources for marker gene studies that consider microbiome trends among human populations scale with the number of individuals sampled from each population. As an alternative strategy for sampling populations, we examined whether sewage accurately reflects the microbial community of a mixture of stool samples. We used oligotyping of high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequence data to compare the bacterial distribution in a stool data set to a sewage influent data set from 71 U.S. cities. On average, only 15% of sewage sample sequence reads were attributed to human fecal origin, but sewage recaptured most (97%) human fecal oligotypes. The most common oligotypes in stool matched the most common and abundant in sewage. After informatically separating sequences of human fecal origin, sewage samples exhibited ~3× greater diversity than stool samples. Comparisons among municipal sewage communities revealed the ubiquitous and abundant occurrence of 27 human fecal oligotypes, representing an apparent core set of organisms in U.S. populations. The fecal community variability among U.S. populations was significantly lower than among individuals. It clustered into three primary community structures distinguished by oligotypes from either: Bacteroidaceae, Prevotellaceae, or Lachnospiraceae/Ruminococcaceae. These distribution patterns reflected human population variation and predicted whether samples represented lean or obese populations with 81 to 89% accuracy. Our findings demonstrate that sewage represents the fecal microbial community of human populations and captures population-level traits of the human microbiome.

Eren A. Murat

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