Temporal and technical variability of human gut metagenomes.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Metagenomics has become a prominent approach for exploring the role of the gut microbiota in human health. However, the temporal variability of the healthy gut microbiome has not yet been studied in depth using metagenomics and little is known about the effects of different sampling and preservation approaches. We performed metagenomic analysis on fecal samples from seven subjects collected over a period of up to two years to investigate temporal variability and assess preservation-induced variation, specifically, fresh frozen compared to RNALater. We also monitored short-term disturbances caused by antibiotic treatment and bowel cleansing in one subject.

Results

We find that the human gut microbiome is temporally stable and highly personalized at both taxonomic a

SUBMITTER: Voigt AY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4416267 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature