Novel systems modeling methodology in comparative microbial metabolomics: identifying key enzymes and metabolites implicated in autism spectrum disorders.

ABSTRACT: Autism spectrum disorders are a group of mental illnesses highly correlated with gastrointestinal dysfunction. Recent studies have shown that there may be one or more microbial "fingerprints" in terms of the composition characterizing individuals with autism, which could be used for diagnostic purposes. This paper proposes a computational approach whereby metagenomes characteristic of "healthy" and autistic individuals are artificially constructed via genomic information, analyzed for the enzymes coded within, and then these enzymes are compared in detail. This is a text mining application. A custom-designed online application was built and used for the comparative metabolomics study and made publically available. Several of the enzyme-catalyzing reactions involved with the amino acid glut

SUBMITTER: Heberling C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4425117 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature