Recovery of Human Gut Microbiota Genomes Substantially With Third-generation Sequencing

Abstract

BackgroundHuman gut microbiota modulates normal physiological functions, such as the maintenance of barrier homeostasis and the modulation of metabolism, and various chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes and gastrointestinal cancer. Despite decades of researches, the composition of the gut microbiota remains unexplored and unidentified. ResultsHere we established an effective extraction method to obtain high-quality gut microbiota genomic DNA and detected the samples with third-generation sequencing technology. We acquired a quite big data form each sample and assembled many reliable contigs. Not only enormous unknown genes, but also several new bacteria subspecies or species were identified. ConclusionsThis work provides a novel and reliable framework to recover gut microbiota genomes substantially, facilitating the understanding of the roles of the microbiome that underlie in human health and disease.