Abstract
The gut microbiome is intimately related to human health, but it is not yet known which functional activities are driven by specific microbes’ ecological configurations or transcription. We report a large-scale investigation of 372 human fecal metatranscriptomes and 929 metagenomes from a subset of 308 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. We identified a metatranscriptomic “core” universally transcribed over time and across participants, often by different microbes. In contrast to the housekeeping functions enriched in this core, a “variable” metatranscriptome included specialized pathways that were differentially expressed both across participants and among microbes. Finally, longitudinal metagenomic profiles allowed ecological interaction network reconstruction, which remained stable over the six-month timespan, as did strain tracking within and between participants. These results provide an initial characterization of human fecal microbial ecology into core, subject-specific, microbe-specific, and temporally-variable transcription, and they differentiate metagenomically versus metatranscriptomically informative aspects of the human fecal microbiome.
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
