[metagenomics-jclub] Metagenomics Club Presentation (and Paper) - Byron Smith, noon, Wed, 9/21

[Adina Chuang Howe]

Hi all,

Byron has graciously stepped up for the first Fall meeting
presentation (I will be out of town, unfortunately).

He will be presenting the human gut enterotype paper (recently
featured in the NY Times even!).  It's an important study and nice
paper -- hope you can all join!

I've attached it for your convenience...

Best,
Adina

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Enterotypes of the human gut microbiome
Arumugam et al. 2011

Our knowledge of species and functional composition of the human gut
microbiome is rapidly increasing, but it is still based on very few
cohorts and little is known about variation across the world. By
combining 22 newly sequenced faecal metagenomes of individuals from
four countries with previously published data sets, here we identify
three robust clusters (referred to as enterotypes hereafter) that are
not nation or continent specific. We also confirmed the enterotypes in
two published, larger cohorts, indicating that intestinal microbiota
variation is generally stratified, not continuous. This indicates
further the existence of a limited number of well-balanced
host–microbial symbiotic states that might respond differently to diet
and drug intake. The enterotypes are mostly driven by species
composition, but abundant molecular functions are not necessarily
provided by abundant species, highlighting the importance of a
functional analysis to understand microbial communities. Although
individual host properties such as body mass index, age, or gender
cannot explain the observed enterotypes, data-driven marker genes or
functional modules can be identified for each of these host
properties. For example, twelve genes significantly correlate with age
and three functional modules with the body mass index, hinting at a
diagnostic potential of microbial markers.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v473/n7346/abs/nature09944.html
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