학술논문

American Gut: an Open Platform for Citizen Science Microbiome Research
Document Type
article
Author
McDonald, DanielHyde, EmbrietteDebelius, Justine WMorton, James TGonzalez, AntonioAckermann, GailAksenov, Alexander ABehsaz, BaharBrennan, CaitrionaChen, YingfengGoldasich, Lindsay DeRightDorrestein, Pieter CDunn, Robert RFahimipour, Ashkaan KGaffney, JamesGilbert, Jack AGogul, GrantGreen, Jessica LHugenholtz, PhilipHumphrey, GregHuttenhower, CurtisJackson, Matthew AJanssen, StefanJeste, Dilip VJiang, LingjingKelley, Scott TKnights, DanKosciolek, TomaszLadau, JoshuaLeach, JeffMarotz, ClarisseMeleshko, DmitryMelnik, Alexey VMetcalf, Jessica LMohimani, HoseinMontassier, EmmanuelNavas-Molina, JoseNguyen, Tanya TPeddada, ShyamalPevzner, PavelPollard, Katherine SRahnavard, GholamaliRobbins-Pianka, AdamSangwan, NaseerShorenstein, JoshuaSmarr, LarrySong, JinSpector, TimothySwafford, Austin DThackray, Varykina GThompson, Luke RTripathi, AnupriyaVázquez-Baeza, YoshikiVrbanac, AlisonWischmeyer, PaulWolfe, ElaineZhu, QiyunMann, Allison EAmir, AmnonFrazier, AngelMartino, CameronLebrilla, CarlitoLozupone, CatherineLewis, Cecil MRaison, CharlesZhang, ChiLauber, Christian LWarinner, ChristinaLowry, Christopher ACallewaert, ChrisBloss, CinnamonWillner, DanaGalzerani, Daniela DomingosGonzalez, David JMills, David AChopra, DeepakGevers, DirkBerg-Lyons, DonnaSears, Dorothy DWendel, DougLovelace, ElijahPierce, EmilyTerAvest, EmilyBolyen, EvanBushman, Frederic DWu, Gary DChurch, George MSaxe, GordonHolscher, Hanna DUgrina, IvoGerman, J BruceCaporaso, J GregoryWozniak, Jacob MKerr, JacquelineRavel, JacquesLewis, James DSuchodolski, Jan SJansson, Janet KHampton-Marcell, Jarrad TBobe, Jason
Source
mSystems. 3(3)
Subject
Microbiology
Biological Sciences
Biomedical and Clinical Sciences
Medical Biochemistry and Metabolomics
Nutrition
Human Genome
Clinical Research
Genetics
citizen science
microbiome
American Gut Consortium
Language
Abstract
Although much work has linked the human microbiome to specific phenotypes and lifestyle variables, data from different projects have been challenging to integrate and the extent of microbial and molecular diversity in human stool remains unknown. Using standardized protocols from the Earth Microbiome Project and sample contributions from over 10,000 citizen-scientists, together with an open research network, we compare human microbiome specimens primarily from the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia to one another and to environmental samples. Our results show an unexpected range of beta-diversity in human stool microbiomes compared to environmental samples; demonstrate the utility of procedures for removing the effects of overgrowth during room-temperature shipping for revealing phenotype correlations; uncover new molecules and kinds of molecular communities in the human stool metabolome; and examine emergent associations among the microbiome, metabolome, and the diversity of plants that are consumed (rather than relying on reductive categorical variables such as veganism, which have little or no explanatory power). We also demonstrate the utility of the living data resource and cross-cohort comparison to confirm existing associations between the microbiome and psychiatric illness and to reveal the extent of microbiome change within one individual during surgery, providing a paradigm for open microbiome research and education. IMPORTANCE We show that a citizen science, self-selected cohort shipping samples through the mail at room temperature recaptures many known microbiome results from clinically collected cohorts and reveals new ones. Of particular interest is integrating n = 1 study data with the population data, showing that the extent of microbiome change after events such as surgery can exceed differences between distinct environmental biomes, and the effect of diverse plants in the diet, which we confirm with untargeted metabolomics on hundreds of samples.