Background In gut microbiome studies, the cultured gut microbial resource plays essential roles, such as helping to unravel gut microbial functions and host-microbe interactions. Although several major studies have been performed to elucidate the cultured human gut microbiota, up to 70% of the Unified Human Gastrointestinal Genome species have not been cultured to date. Large-scale gut microbial isolation and identification as well as availability to the public are imperative for gut microbial studies and further characterizing human gut microbial functions. Results In this study, we constructed a human Gut Microbial Biobank (hGMB; homepage: hgmb.nmdc.cn) through the cultivation of 10,558 isolates from 31 sample mixtures of 239 fresh fecal samples from healthy Chinese volunteers, and deposited 1170 strains representing 400 different species in culture collections of the International Depository Authority for long-term preservation and public access worldwide. Following the rules of the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes, 102 new species were characterized and denominated, while 28 new genera and 3 new families were proposed. hGMB represented over 80% of the common and dominant human gut microbial genera and species characterized from global human gut 16S rRNA gene amplicon data (n = 11,647) and cultured 24 “most-wanted” and “medium priority” taxa proposed by the Human Microbiome Project. We in total sequenced 115 genomes representing 102 novel taxa and 13 previously known species. Further in silico analysis revealed that the newly sequenced hGMB genomes represented 22 previously uncultured species in the Unified Human Gastrointestinal Genome (UHGG) and contributed 24 representatives of potentially “dark taxa” that had not been discovered by UHGG. The nonredundant gene catalogs generated from the hGMB genomes covered over 50% of the functionally known genes (KEGG orthologs) in the largest global human gut gene catalogs and approximately 10% of the “most wanted” functionally unknown proteins in the FUnkFams database. Conclusions A publicly accessible human Gut Microbial Biobank (hGMB) was established that contained 1170 strains and represents 400 human gut microbial species. hGMB expands the gut microbial resources and genomic repository by adding 102 novel species, 28 new genera, 3 new families, and 115 new genomes of human gut microbes.

BackgroundThe cultivated gut microbial resource plays essential roles in gut microbiome studies such as unraveling gut microbial functions and host-microbe interactions. Though several major studies have been performed to understand the cultured human gut microbiota, up to 70% of the Unified Human Gastrointestinal Genome species remain uncultivated. Large-scale gut microbial isolation and identification and their access to public are imperative for gut microbial studies and further understanding of the human gut microbial functions.ResultsHere, we report the construction of a human Gut Microbial Biobank (hGMB) (homepage: hgmb.nmdc.cn) by cultivation of 10,558 isolates from 239 feces samples of healthy Chinese volunteers, and deposited 1,170 strains representing 400 different species in culture collections of International Depository Authority for long-term preservation and public access worldwide. The hGMB enriched the existing cultivable gut microbial repository and represented over 80% of the common and dominant human gut microbial genera and species of global human gut 16S rRNA gene amplicon data (n=11,647).Moreover, 102 new species were characterized and denominated and 28 new genera and 3 new families were proposed, following the rules of International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes. The hGMB uncovered 24 “most-wanted” and “medium priority” taxa proposed by the Human Microbiome Project, while the novel-taxon genomes represented 22 previously-uncultured species in Unified Human Gastrointestinal Genome (UHGG) and contributed 24 potentially “dark-taxon” representatives that were not discovered by UHGG. The 115 newly-sequenced hGMB genomes covered over 50% of the known genes (KEGG Orthologs) in the global human gut gene catalogs and over 10% of the “most-wanted” functionally unknown proteins in FUnkFams database.ConclusionsA publicly accessible human Gut Microbial Biobank (hGMB) is established and contains 1,170 strains and represents 400 human gut microbial species. The hGMB expands gut microbial resources and genomic repository by adding 102 novel species, 28 new genera and 3 new families, and 115 new genomes of human gut microbes.

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Background The cultivated gut microbial resource plays essential role in gut microbiome studies such as gut microbial function and their interactions with host. Though several major studies had been performed to understand the cultured human gut microbiota, up to 70% of the Unified Human Gastrointestinal Genome species remain uncultivated and their taxonomy is not clear. Large-scale gut microbial isolation and identification and their access to pubic are imperative for gut microbial studies and for understanding of the human gut microbial functions.Results Here, we report the construction of an human Gut Microbial Biobank (hGMB) (homepage: hgmb.nmdc.cn) by large-scale cultivation of 10,558 isolates from 239 feces of healthy Chinese volunteers, and deposited 1,170 strains representing 404 different species in International Depository Authority for long-term preservation and public access worldwidely. We discovered and denominated 107 new species, and proposed 28 new genera and 3 new families. The new species and their newly sequenced genomes uncovered 16 “most-wanted” or “medium priority” taxa proposed by the Human Microbiome Project and 42 previously-uncultured MAGs in IGGdb, respectively. The hGMB represented over 80% of the common and dominant human gut microbial genera or species of global human gut 16S rRNA gene amplicon data (n=11,647), and covered 70% of the known genes (KEGG Orthologys) and 10% of the functionally-unknown genes in the global human gut gene catalogs. Conclusions A publically accessible human Gut Microbial Biobank (hGMB) that contains 1,170 strains and represents 404 human gut microbial speces is estabolished. The hGMB expands the currently known, taxonomically-characterized gut microbial resources and genomic repository by adding 107 new species and 115 new genomes of human gut microbes. Based on the newly discovered species in this study, 28 new genera and 3 new families of human gut microbes were identified and proposed.

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Nonylphenol polyethoxylates (NPEOs), although banned for decades, are still widely used in manufactories and thus affect human lives. In this study, a highly efficient NPEO-degrading bacterium, Sphingomonas sp. Y2, was isolated from sewage sludge by enrichment culture. Strain Y2 ensured the complete removal of NPEO in 48 h and degraded 99.2 % NPEO (1,000 mg L(-1)) within 30 h at a specific growth rate of 0.73 h(-1) in minimum salt medium. To date, this degradation efficiency is the highest reported for NPEO metabolism by a pure bacterium under this condition. Furthermore, the application of this bacterium to wastewater treatment demonstrated that it metabolized 98.5 % NPEO (1,000 mg L(-1)) within 5 days with a specific growth rate of 2.03 day(-1). The degradation intermediates, identified as nonylphenol, short-chain NPEOs and short-chain nonylphenol polyethoxycarboxylates by high-performance liquid chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, indicated the sequential exo-cleavage of the EO chain. Additionally, the enzymes involved in the biodegradation were inducible rather than constitutive. Considering that strain Y2 exhibits prominent biodegradation advantages in industrial wastewater treatment, it might serve as a promising potential candidate for in situ bioremediation of contamination by NPEOs and other structurally similar compounds.

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Impact statement Nonhuman primates (NHPs) such as monkeys are the closest living relatives to humans and are the best available models for causative studies of human health and diseases. Gut microbiomes are intensively involved in host health. In this study, by large‐scale cultivation of microbes from fecal samples of monkeys, we obtained previously uncultured bacterial species and constructed a Macaca fascicularis Gut Microbial Biobank (MfGMB). The MfGMB consisted of 250 strains that represent 97 species of 63 genera, 25 families, and 4 phyla. The information of the 250 strains and the genomes of 97 cultured species are publicly accessible. The MfGMB represented nearly 50% of core gut microbial compositions at the genus level and covered over 80% of the KO‐based known gut microbiome functions of M. fascicularis. Data mining showed that the bacterial species in the MfGMB were prevalent not only in NHPs gut microbiomes but also in human gut microbiomes. This study will help the understanding and future investigations on how gut microbiomes interact with their mammalian hosts.