Suguru Nishijima, Evelina Stankevic, Oliver Aasmets, Thomas S.B. Schmidt, Naoyoshi Nagata, Marisa Isabell Keller, Pamela Ferretti, Helene Bæk Juel, Anthony Fullam, Shahriyar Mahdi Robbani, Christian Schudoma, Johanne Kragh Hansen, Louise Aas Holm, Mads Israelsen, Robert Schierwagen, Nikolaj Torp, Anja Telzerow, Rajna Hercog, Stefanie Kandels, Diënty H.M. Hazenbrink, Maja Thiele
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
The microbiota in individual habitats differ in both relative composition and absolute abundance. While sequencing approaches determine the relative abundances of taxa and genes, they do not provide information on their absolute abundances. Here, we developed a machine-learning approach to predict fecal microbial loads (microbial cells per gram) solely from relative abundance data. Applying our prediction model to a large-scale metagenomic dataset (n = 34,539), we demonstrated that microbial load is the major determinant of gut microbiome variation and is associated with numerous host factors, including age, diet, and medication. We further found that for several diseases, changes in microbial load, rather than the disease condition itself, more strongly explained alterations in patients’ gut microbiome. Adjusting for this effect substantially reduced the statistical significance of the majority of disease-associated species. Our analysis reveals that the fecal microbial load is a major confounder in microbiome studies, highlighting its importance for understanding microbiome variation in health and disease.
期刊介绍:
Cells is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal that focuses on cell biology, molecular biology, and biophysics. It is affiliated with several societies, including the Spanish Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SEBBM), Nordic Autophagy Society (NAS), Spanish Society of Hematology and Hemotherapy (SEHH), and Society for Regenerative Medicine (Russian Federation) (RPO).
The journal publishes research findings of significant importance in various areas of experimental biology, such as cell biology, molecular biology, neuroscience, immunology, virology, microbiology, cancer, human genetics, systems biology, signaling, and disease mechanisms and therapeutics. The primary criterion for considering papers is whether the results contribute to significant conceptual advances or raise thought-provoking questions and hypotheses related to interesting and important biological inquiries.
In addition to primary research articles presented in four formats, Cells also features review and opinion articles in its "leading edge" section, discussing recent research advancements and topics of interest to its wide readership.