scholarly journals Insights of the dental calculi microbiome of pre-Columbian inhabitants from Puerto Rico

PeerJ ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. e3277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tasha M. Santiago-Rodriguez ◽  
Yvonne Narganes-Storde ◽  
Luis Chanlatte-Baik ◽  
Gary A. Toranzos ◽  
Raul J. Cano

Background The study of ancient microorganisms in mineralized dental plaque or calculi is providing insights into microbial evolution, as well as lifestyles and disease states of extinct cultures; yet, little is still known about the oral microbial community structure and function of pre-Columbian Caribbean cultures. In the present study, we investigated the dental calculi microbiome and predicted function of one of these cultures, known as the Saladoid. The Saladoids were horticulturalists that emphasized root-crop production. Fruits, as well as small marine and terrestrial animals were also part of the Saladoid diet. Methods Dental calculi samples were recovered from the archaeological site of Sorcé, in the municipal island of Vieques, Puerto Rico, characterized using 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing, and compared to the microbiome of previously characterized coprolites of the same culture, as well modern plaque, saliva and stool microbiomes available from the Human Microbiome Project. Results Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria and Firmicutes comprised the majority of the Saladoid dental calculi microbiome. The Saladoid dental calculi microbiome was distinct when compared to those of modern saliva and dental plaque, but showed the presence of common inhabitants of modern oral cavities including Streptococcus sp., Veillonella dispar and Rothia mucilaginosa. Cell motility, signal transduction and biosynthesis of other secondary metabolites may be unique features of the Saladoid microbiome. Discussion Results suggest that the Saladoid dental calculi microbiome structure and function may possibly reflect a horticulturalist lifestyle and distinct dietary habits. Results also open the opportunity to further elucidate oral disease states in extinct Caribbean cultures and extinct indigenous cultures with similar lifestyles.

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 3155
Author(s):  
Shumin Liu ◽  
Fengbin Zhao ◽  
Xin Fang

Phytoplankton and bacterioplankton play a vital role in the structure and function of aquatic ecosystems, and their activity is closely linked to water eutrophication. However, few researchers have considered the temporal and spatial succession of phytoplankton and bacterioplankton, and their responses to environmental factors. The temporal and spatial succession of bacterioplankton and their ecological interaction with phytoplankton and water quality were analyzed using 16S rDNA high-throughput sequencing for their identification, and the functions of bacterioplankton were predicted. The results showed that the dominant classes of bacterioplankton in the Qingcaosha Reservoir were Gammaproteobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria, Actinomycetes, Acidimicrobiia, and Cyanobacteria. In addition, the Shannon diversity indexes were compared, and the results showed significant temporal differences based on monthly averaged value, although no significant spatial difference. The community structure was found to be mainly influenced by phytoplankton density and biomass, dissolved oxygen, and electrical conductivity. The presence of Pseudomonas and Legionella was positively correlated with that of Pseudanabaena sp., and Sphingomonas and Paragonimus with Melosira granulata. On the contrary, the presence of Planctomycetes was negatively correlated with Melosira granulata, as was Deinococcus-Thermus with Cyclotella sp. The relative abundance of denitrifying bacteria decreased from April to December, while the abundance of nitrogen-fixing bacteria increased. This study provides a scientific basis for understanding the ecological interactions between bacteria, algae, and water quality in reservoir ecosystems.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (22) ◽  
pp. 8774
Author(s):  
Natalia Komarova ◽  
Daria Barkova ◽  
Alexander Kuznetsov

Aptamers are nucleic acid ligands that bind specifically to a target of interest. Aptamers have gained in popularity due to their high potential for different applications in analysis, diagnostics, and therapeutics. The procedure called systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) is used for aptamer isolation from large nucleic acid combinatorial libraries. The huge number of unique sequences implemented in the in vitro evolution in the SELEX process imposes the necessity of performing extensive sequencing of the selected nucleic acid pools. High-throughput sequencing (HTS) meets this demand of SELEX. Analysis of the data obtained from sequencing of the libraries produced during and after aptamer isolation provides an informative basis for precise aptamer identification and for examining the structure and function of nucleic acid ligands. This review discusses the technical aspects and the potential of the integration of HTS with SELEX.


PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e4458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yujia Wu ◽  
Xiaopei Chi ◽  
Qian Zhang ◽  
Feng Chen ◽  
Xuliang Deng

Background The interactions between the gut microbiome and obesity have been extensively studied. Although the oral cavity is the gateway to the gut, and is extensively colonized with microbes, little is known about the oral microbiome in people with obesity. In the present study, we investigated the salivary microbiome in obese and normal weight healthy participants using metagenomic analysis. The subjects were categorized into two groups, obesity and normal weight, based on their BMIs. Methods We characterized the salivary microbiome of 33 adults with obesity and 29 normal weight controls using high-throughput sequencing of the V3–V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene (Illumina MiSeq). None of the selected participants had systemic, oral mucosal, or periodontal diseases. Results The salivary microbiome of the obesity group was distinct from that of the normal weight group. The salivary microbiome of periodontally healthy people with obesity had both significantly lower bacterial diversity and richness compared with the controls. The genus Prevotella, Granulicatella, Peptostreptococcus, Solobacterium, Catonella, and Mogibacterium were significantly more abundant in the obesity group; meanwhile the genus Haemophilus, Corynebacterium, Capnocytophaga, and Staphylococcus were less abundant in the obesity group. We also performed a functional analysis of the inferred metagenomes, and showed that the salivary community associated with obesity had a stronger signature of immune disease and a decreased functional signature related to environmental adaptation and Xenobiotics biodegradation compared with the normal weight controls. Discussion Our study demonstrates that the microbial diversity and structure of the salivary microbiome in people with obesity are significantly different from those of normal weight controls. These results suggested that changes in the structure and function of salivary microbiome in people with obesity might reflect their susceptibility to oral diseases.


Diversity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 361
Author(s):  
Lei Wu ◽  
Xinqiang Xie ◽  
Jumei Zhang ◽  
Yu Ding ◽  
Qingping Wu

Healthy longevity is associated with many factors, however, the potential correlation between longevity and microbiota remains elusive. To address this, we explored environmental microbiota from one of the world’s longevity townships in China. We used 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing to analyze the composition and function of water microbiota. The composition and diversity of water microbiota significantly differed between the towns. Lactobacillus, Streptococcus, Bacteroides, Faecalibacterium, and Stenotrophomonas were only dominant in Xinpu, a town with an exceptionally high centenarian population. Several biomarkers were identified, including Flavobacterium, Acinetobacter, Paracoccus, Lactobacillales, Psychrobacter, Bacteroides, Ruminococcaceae, and Faecalibacterium, and these shown to be responsible for the significant differences between towns. The main species contributing to the differences between towns were Cyanobacteria, Cupriavidus and Ralstonia. Based on KEGG pathways showed that the predicted metabolic characteristics of the water microbiota in Xinpu towns were significantly different to those of the other towns. The results revealed significant differences in the composition and diversity of water microbiota in the longevity township. These findings provide a foundation for further research on the role of water microbiota in healthy longevity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Chopyk ◽  
Daniel J. Nasko ◽  
Sarah Allard ◽  
Anthony Bui ◽  
Mihai Pop ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Ponds are important freshwater habitats that support both human and environmental activities. However, relative to their larger counterparts (e.g. rivers, lakes), ponds are understudied, especially with regard to their microbial communities. Our study aimed to fill this knowledge gap by using culture-independent, high-throughput sequencing to assess the dynamics, taxonomy, and functionality of bacterial and viral communities in a freshwater agricultural pond. Results Water samples (n = 14) were collected from a Mid-Atlantic agricultural pond between June 2017 and May 2018 and filtered sequentially through 1 and 0.2 μm filter membranes. Total DNA was then extracted from each filter, pooled, and subjected to 16S rRNA gene and shotgun sequencing on the Illumina HiSeq 2500 platform. Additionally, on eight occasions water filtrates were processed for viral metagenomes (viromes) using chemical concentration and then shotgun sequenced. A ubiquitous freshwater phylum, Proteobacteria was abundant at all sampling dates throughout the year. However, environmental characteristics appeared to drive the structure of the community. For instance, the abundance of Cyanobacteria (e.g. Nostoc) increased with rising water temperatures, while a storm event appeared to trigger an increase in overall bacterial diversity, as well as the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes. This event was also associated with an increase in the number of antibiotic resistance genes. The viral fractions were dominated by dsDNA of the order Caudovirales, namely Siphoviridae and Myovirdae. Conclusions Overall, this study provides one of the largest datasets on pond water microbial ecology to date, revealing seasonal trends in the microbial taxonomic composition and functional potential.


Minerals ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuang Zhou ◽  
Min Gan ◽  
Jianyu Zhu ◽  
Xinxing Liu ◽  
Guanzhou Qiu

It is widely known that bioleaching microorganisms have to cope with the complex extreme environment in which microbial ecology relating to community structure and function varies across environmental types. However, analyses of microbial ecology of bioleaching bacteria is still a challenge. To address this challenge, numerous technologies have been developed. In recent years, high-throughput sequencing technologies enabling comprehensive sequencing analysis of cellular RNA and DNA within the reach of most laboratories have been added to the toolbox of microbial ecology. The next-generation sequencing technology allowing processing DNA sequences can produce available draft genomic sequences of more bioleaching bacteria, which provides the opportunity to predict models of genetic and metabolic potential of bioleaching bacteria and ultimately deepens our understanding of bioleaching microorganism. High-throughput sequencing that focuses on targeted phylogenetic marker 16S rRNA has been effectively applied to characterize the community diversity in an ore leaching environment. RNA-seq, another application of high-throughput sequencing to profile RNA, can be for both mapping and quantifying transcriptome and has demonstrated a high efficiency in quantifying the changing expression level of each transcript under different conditions. It has been demonstrated as a powerful tool for dissecting the relationship between genotype and phenotype, leading to interpreting functional elements of the genome and revealing molecular mechanisms of adaption. This review aims to describe the high-throughput sequencing approach for bioleaching environmental microorganisms, particularly focusing on its application associated with challenges.


Antibodies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lefranc ◽  
Lefranc

At the 10th Human Genome Mapping (HGM10) Workshop, in New Haven, for the first time, immunoglobulin (IG) or antibody and T cell receptor (TR) variable (V), diversity (D), joining (J), and constant (C) genes were officially recognized as ‘genes’, as were the conventional genes. Under these HGM auspices, IMGT®, the international ImMunoGeneTics information system® (http://www.imgt.org), was created in June 1989 at Montpellier (University of Montpellier and CNRS). The creation of IMGT® marked the birth of immunoinformatics, a new science, at the interface between immunogenetics and bioinformatics. The accuracy and the consistency between genes and alleles, sequences, and three-dimensional (3D) structures are based on the IMGT Scientific chart rules generated from the IMGT-ONTOLOGY axioms and concepts: IMGT standardized keywords (IDENTIFICATION), IMGT gene and allele nomenclature (CLASSIFICATION), IMGT standardized labels (DESCRIPTION), IMGT unique numbering and IMGT Collier de Perles (NUMEROTATION). These concepts provide IMGT® immunoinformatics insights for antibody V and C domain structure and function, used for the standardized description in IMGT® web resources, databases and tools, immune repertoires analysis, single cell and/or high-throughput sequencing (HTS, NGS), antibody humanization, and antibody engineering in relation with effector properties.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Odrzywolek ◽  
Zuzanna Karwowska ◽  
Jan Majta ◽  
Aleksander Byrski ◽  
Kaja Milanowska-Zabel ◽  
...  

Understanding the function of microbial proteins is essential to reveal the clinical potential of the microbiome. The application of high-throughput sequencing technologies allows for fast and increasingly cheaper acquisition of data from microbial communities. However, many of the inferred protein sequences are novel and not catalogued, hence the possibility of predicting their function through conventional homology-based approaches is limited. Here, we leverage a deep-learning-based representation of proteins to assess its utility in alignment-free analysis of microbial proteins. We trained a language model on the Unified Human Gastrointestinal Protein catalogue and validated the resulting protein representation on the bacterial part of the SwissProt database. Finally, we present a use case on proteins involved in SCFA metabolism. Results indicate that our model (ArdiMiPE) manages to accurately represent features related to protein structure and function, allowing for alignment-free protein analyses. Technologies such as ArdiMiPE that contextualize metagenomic data are a promising direction to deeply understand the microbiome.


1999 ◽  
Vol 123 (11) ◽  
pp. 1050-1052
Author(s):  
Eric P. Hoffman

Abstract The application of cloned genes and their protein products to molecular diagnostics has been an increasingly important area of pathology. The first gene to be identified by positional cloning was the Duchenne muscular dystrophy gene, mutations of which cause one of the most common and most devastating human inherited conditions. The identification of the responsible gene and the encoded dystrophin protein has resulted in a large series of studies concerning the other components of the membrane cytoskeleton of myofibers and their involvement in different forms of muscular dystrophy. Through the study of patients deficient in specific components of the muscle fiber, much is being learned about normal myofiber structure and function and dysfunction in disease states. A new frontier is the application of the normal genes and proteins toward patient therapeutics (gene therapy). Although highly experimental, delivery of therapeutic genes promises to become an important medical practice.


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