Microbiome Analyses
There are 10X as many microbial cells as human cells in our bodies. We are constantly learning more about how changes in the composition of these communities of organisms (microbiomes) correlate with human health. Studies have shown that disruptions in our microbiomes may influence the course of particular disease states. The HMP will expand upon these studies by performing 16S rRNA and metagenomic sequencing of samples from a healthy population to address questions such as whether there is a "core" microbiome at individual body sites and whether variation in the microbiome can be systematically studied. If you have questions about this aspect of the HMP, please contact us via the feedback form in the upper-right hand portion of the screen.
16S rRNA sequencing will be used to characterize the complexity of microbial communities at 5 body sites, and to determine whether there is a core microbiome.
Metagenomic whole genome shotgun (wgs) sequencing will provide insights into the functions and pathways present in the human microbiome, and will generate a reference framework for those looking into associations between changes in the human microbiome and disease states.
As sequence becomes available, the HMP is planning analyses including, but not limited to:
- Phylogenetic Analysis of 16S rRNA sequence using RDB classifier
- Taxonomic binning of metagenomic wgs sequence
- Read-based community comparisons of metagenomic wgs sequence
- Functional annotation of the human microbiome, and identification of gene classes of particular interest
- Identification of metabolic pathways
- Comparisons of microbiomes from different body sites/subjects on multiple levels: organisms, genes, pathways