Megaplasmids in the preterm infant gut microbiome and beyond

Large extrachromosomal elements, such as plasmids and bacteriophages, are notoriously challenging to assemble and link to bacterial hosts in complex metagenomes. Leveraging PacBio sequencing, we have curated complete and previously uncharacterized megaplasmids from the preterm infant gut microbiome. Using a variety of computational approaches, we are deciphering the functions encoded on these plasmids and attempting to identify their bacterial hosts. Finally, a survey of other metagenomic datasets suggests plasmids of this nature are present across a broader range of microbiomes.

Intus Biosciences novel technological approach is key to enabling actionable health insights from microbiome data

Intus Biosciences developed novel approaches for each step of microbiome analysis, starting with a high-throughput lysis, a contiguous amplicon combining the high information , ~2500 bp 16S-ITS-23S elements of the bacterial rRNA operon, and machine learning data analysios. Combined with highly accurate PacBio long read sequencing, these advances enable database independent, substrain level bacterial identification at high throughput with 1/2000th the data of shotgun sequencing. Analysis of individual human fecal samples that emphasizes the health of the microbial community reveals key differences in disease states that are actionable at the individual level. As an example, we have discovered a group of previously undescribed Mycoplasma that are present in conjunction with IBS symptoms in a significant number of individuals.