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Stuart J, Ryan KG, Pearman JK, Thomson-Laing J, Hampton HG, Smith KF. A comparison of two gene regions for assessing community composition of eukaryotic marine microalgae from coastal ecosystems. Sci Rep 2024; 14:6442. [PMID: 38499675 PMCID: PMC10948787 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-56993-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2023] [Accepted: 03/13/2024] [Indexed: 03/20/2024] Open
Abstract
Two gene regions commonly used to characterise the diversity of eukaryotic communities using metabarcoding are the 18S ribosomal DNA V4 and V9 gene regions. We assessed the effectiveness of these two regions for characterising diverisity of coastal eukaryotic microalgae communities (EMCs) from tropical and temperate sites. We binned amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) into the high level taxonomic groups: dinoflagellates, pennate diatoms, radial centric diatoms, polar centric diatoms, chlorophytes, haptophytes and 'other microalgae'. When V4 and V9 generated ASV abundances were compared, the V9 region generated a higher number of raw reads, captured more diversity from all high level taxonomic groups and was more closely aligned with the community composition determined using light microscopy. The V4 region did resolve more ASVs to a deeper taxonomic resolution within the dinoflagellates, but did not effectively resolve other major taxonomic divisions. When characterising these communities via metabarcoding, the use of multiple gene regions is recommended, but the V9 gene region can be used in isolation to provide high-level community biodiversity to reflect relative abundances within groups. This approach reduces the cost of sequencing multiple gene regions whilst still providing important baseline ecosystem function information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacqui Stuart
- School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington, 6140, New Zealand.
- Cawthron Institute, Private Bag 2, Nelson, 7042, New Zealand.
| | - Ken G Ryan
- School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington, 6140, New Zealand
| | - John K Pearman
- Cawthron Institute, Private Bag 2, Nelson, 7042, New Zealand
| | | | | | - Kirsty F Smith
- Cawthron Institute, Private Bag 2, Nelson, 7042, New Zealand
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2
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Romashchenko N, Linard B, Pardi F, Rivals E. EPIK: precise and scalable evolutionary placement with informative k-mers. Bioinformatics 2023; 39:btad692. [PMID: 37975872 PMCID: PMC10701097 DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btad692] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2023] [Revised: 09/20/2023] [Accepted: 11/16/2023] [Indexed: 11/19/2023] Open
Abstract
MOTIVATION Phylogenetic placement enables phylogenetic analysis of massive collections of newly sequenced DNA, when de novo tree inference is too unreliable or inefficient. Assuming that a high-quality reference tree is available, the idea is to seek the correct placement of the new sequences in that tree. Recently, alignment-free approaches to phylogenetic placement have emerged, both to circumvent the need to align the new sequences and to avoid the calculations that typically follow the alignment step. A promising approach is based on the inference of k-mers that can be potentially related to the reference sequences, also called phylo-k-mers. However, its usage is limited by the time and memory-consuming stage of reference data preprocessing and the large numbers of k-mers to consider. RESULTS We suggest a filtering method for selecting informative phylo-k-mers based on mutual information, which can significantly improve the efficiency of placement, at the cost of a small loss in placement accuracy. This method is implemented in IPK, a new tool for computing phylo-k-mers that significantly outperforms the software previously available. We also present EPIK, a new software for phylogenetic placement, supporting filtered phylo-k-mer databases. Our experiments on real-world data show that EPIK is the fastest phylogenetic placement tool available, when placing hundreds of thousands and millions of queries while still providing accurate placements. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION IPK and EPIK are freely available at https://github.com/phylo42/IPK and https://github.com/phylo42/EPIK. Both are implemented in C++ and Python and supported on Linux and MacOS.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Fabio Pardi
- LIRMM, University of Montpellier, CNRS, Montpellier, France
| | - Eric Rivals
- LIRMM, University of Montpellier, CNRS, Montpellier, France
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3
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Ewers I, Rajter L, Czech L, Mahé F, Stamatakis A, Dunthorn M. Interpreting phylogenetic placements for taxonomic assignment of environmental DNA. J Eukaryot Microbiol 2023; 70:e12990. [PMID: 37448139 DOI: 10.1111/jeu.12990] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2023] [Revised: 05/29/2023] [Accepted: 06/17/2023] [Indexed: 07/15/2023]
Abstract
Taxonomic assignment of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) is an important bioinformatics step in analyzing environmental sequencing data. Pairwise alignment and phylogenetic-placement methods represent two alternative approaches to taxonomic assignments, but their results can differ. Here we used available colpodean ciliate OTUs from forest soils to compare the taxonomic assignments of VSEARCH (which performs pairwise alignments) and EPA-ng (which performs phylogenetic placements). We showed that when there are differences in taxonomic assignments between pairwise alignments and phylogenetic placements at the subtaxon level, there is a low pairwise similarity of the OTUs to the reference database. We then showcase how the output of EPA-ng can be further evaluated using GAPPA to assess the taxonomic assignments when there exist multiple equally likely placements of an OTU, by taking into account the sum over the likelihood weights of the OTU placements within a subtaxon, and the branch distances between equally likely placement locations. We also inferred the evolutionary and ecological characteristics of the colpodean OTUs using their placements within subtaxa. This study demonstrates how to fully analyze the output of EPA-ng, by using GAPPA in conjunction with knowledge of the taxonomic diversity of the clade of interest.
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Affiliation(s)
- Isabelle Ewers
- Eukaryotic Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Lubomír Rajter
- Eukaryotic Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
- Phycology, Faculty of Biology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
| | - Lucas Czech
- Department of Plant Biology, Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford, California, USA
| | - Frédéric Mahé
- CIRAD, UMR PHIM, Montpellier, France
- PHIM Plant Health Institute, CIRAD, INRAE, Institut Agro, IRD, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | - Alexandros Stamatakis
- Computational Molecular Evolution Group, Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies, Heidelberg, Germany
- Institute for Theoretical Informatics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Micah Dunthorn
- Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
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Carvalho da Silva V, Fernandes N. Protist taxonomic and functional diversity in aquatic ecosystems of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. PeerJ 2023; 11:e15762. [PMID: 37547721 PMCID: PMC10402703 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.15762] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2023] [Accepted: 06/27/2023] [Indexed: 08/08/2023] Open
Abstract
The Brazilian Atlantic Forest and its associated ecosystems are highly biodiverse but still understudied, especially with respect to eukaryotic microbes. Protists represent the largest proportion of eukaryotic diversity and play important roles in nutrient cycling and maintenance of the ecosystems in which they occur. However, much of protist diversity remains unknown, particularly in the Neotropics. Understanding the taxonomic and functional diversity of these organisms is urgently needed, not only to fill this gap in our knowledge, but also to enable the development of public policies for biological conservation. This is the first study to investigate the taxonomic and trophic diversity of the major protist groups in freshwater systems and brackish coastal lagoons located in fragments of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest by DNA metabarcoding, using high-throughput sequencing of the gene coding for the V4 region of the 18S rRNA gene. We compared α and β diversity for all protist communities and assessed the relative abundance of phototrophic, consumer, and parasitic taxa. We found that the protist communities of coastal lagoons are as diverse as the freshwater systems studied in terms of α diversity, although differed significantly in terms of taxonomic composition. Our results still showed a notable functional homogeneity between the trophic groups in freshwater environments. Beta diversity was higher among freshwater samples, suggesting a greater level of heterogeneity within this group of samples concerning the composition and abundance of OTUs.Ciliophora was the most represented group in freshwater, while Diatomea dominated diversity in coastal lagoons.
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Kezlya E, Tseplik N, Kulikovskiy M. Genetic Markers for Metabarcoding of Freshwater Microalgae: Review. BIOLOGY 2023; 12:1038. [PMID: 37508467 PMCID: PMC10376359 DOI: 10.3390/biology12071038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2023] [Revised: 07/14/2023] [Accepted: 07/18/2023] [Indexed: 07/30/2023]
Abstract
The metabarcoding methods for studying the diversity of freshwater microalgae and routine biomonitoring are actively used in modern research. A lot of experience has been accumulated already, and many methodological questions have been solved (such as the influence of the methods and time of sample conservation, DNA extraction and bioinformatical processing). The reproducibility of the method has been tested and confirmed. However, one of the main problems-choosing a genetic marker for the study-still lacks a clear answer. We analyzed 70 publications and found out that studies on eukaryotic freshwater microalgae use 12 markers (different nuclear regions 18S and ITS and plastids rbcL, 23S and 16S). Each marker has its peculiarities; they amplify differently and have various levels of efficiency (variability) in different groups of algae. The V4 and V9 18S and rbcL regions are used most often. We concentrated especially on the studies that compare the results of using different markers and microscopy. We summarize the data on the primers for each region and on how the choice of a marker affects the taxonomic composition of a community.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elena Kezlya
- Laboratory of Molecular Systematics of Aquatic Plants, K.A. Timiryazev Institute of Plant Physiology RAS, IPP RAS, 127276 Moscow, Russia
| | - Natalia Tseplik
- Laboratory of Molecular Systematics of Aquatic Plants, K.A. Timiryazev Institute of Plant Physiology RAS, IPP RAS, 127276 Moscow, Russia
| | - Maxim Kulikovskiy
- Laboratory of Molecular Systematics of Aquatic Plants, K.A. Timiryazev Institute of Plant Physiology RAS, IPP RAS, 127276 Moscow, Russia
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Xia M, Ma X, Liu J, Wu M, Li Z, Liu M. Potential effect of key soil bacterial taxa on the increase of rice yield under milk vetch rotation. Front Microbiol 2023; 14:1150505. [PMID: 37283927 PMCID: PMC10241072 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1150505] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2023] [Accepted: 04/28/2023] [Indexed: 06/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Legume crop rotation is often adopted in rice cultivation to improve soil productivity. However, little is known about the role of microbes under legume rotation in affecting soil productivity. To elucidate this, a long-term paddy cropping experiment was set up to study the relationship between crop yield, soil chemical properties, and key microbial taxa under a double-rice and milk vetch rotation. Milk vetch rotation significantly improved soil chemical properties compared to no fertilization treatment, and soil phosphorus was a major factor correlated with crop yield. Long-term legume rotation increased soil bacterial alpha diversity and changed soil bacterial community. After milk vetch rotation, the relative abundances of Bacteroidota, Desulfobacterota, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria increased while those of Acidobacteriota, Chloroflexi, and Planctomycetota decreased. Moreover, milk vetch rotation increased the relative abundance of phosphorus-related gene K01083 (bpp), which was significantly correlated with soil phosphorus content and crop yield. Network analysis showed that taxa of Vicinamibacterales were positively correlated with total phosphorus and available phosphorus, which was a potential taxon contributing to the availability of soil phosphorus stock. Our results indicated that milk vetch rotation could enrich key taxa with latent phosphate-solubilizing ability, increase the content of soil available phosphorus, and finally enhance crop yield. This could provide scientific guidance for better crop production.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mingming Xia
- State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Xinling Ma
- State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Jia Liu
- National Engineering and Technology Research Center for Red Soil Improvement, Soil and Fertilizer & Resources and Environment Institute, Jiangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanchang, China
| | - Meng Wu
- State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Zhongpei Li
- State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Ming Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- Ecological Experimental Station of Red Soil Academia Sinica, Nanjing, China
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Esquivel-Hernández DA, Martínez-López YE, Sánchez-Castañeda JP, Neri-Rosario D, Padrón-Manrique C, Giron-Villalobos D, Mendoza-Ortíz C, Resendis-Antonio O. A network perspective on the ecology of gut microbiota and progression of type 2 diabetes: Linkages to keystone taxa in a Mexican cohort. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) 2023; 14:1128767. [PMID: 37124757 PMCID: PMC10130651 DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2023.1128767] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2022] [Accepted: 03/21/2023] [Indexed: 05/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction The human gut microbiota (GM) is a dynamic system which ecological interactions among the community members affect the host metabolism. Understanding the principles that rule the bidirectional communication between GM and its host, is one of the most valuable enterprise for uncovering how bacterial ecology influences the clinical variables in the host. Methods Here, we used SparCC to infer association networks in 16S rRNA gene amplicon data from the GM of a cohort of Mexican patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) in different stages: NG (normoglycemic), IFG (impaired fasting glucose), IGT (impaired glucose tolerance), IFG + IGT (impaired fasting glucose plus impaired glucose tolerance), T2D and T2D treated (T2D with a 5-year ongoing treatment). Results By exploring the network topology from the different stages of T2D, we observed that, as the disease progress, the networks lose the association between bacteria. It suggests that the microbial community becomes highly sensitive to perturbations in individuals with T2D. With the purpose to identify those genera that guide this transition, we computationally found keystone taxa (driver nodes) and core genera for a Mexican T2D cohort. Altogether, we suggest a set of genera driving the progress of the T2D in a Mexican cohort, among them Ruminococcaceae NK4A214 group, Ruminococcaceae UCG-010, Ruminococcaceae UCG-002, Ruminococcaceae UCG-005, Alistipes, Anaerostipes, and Terrisporobacter. Discussion Based on a network approach, this study suggests a set of genera that can serve as a potential biomarker to distinguish the distinct degree of advances in T2D for a Mexican cohort of patients. Beyond limiting our conclusion to one population, we present a computational pipeline to link ecological networks and clinical stages in T2D, and desirable aim to advance in the field of precision medicine.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Yoscelina Estrella Martínez-López
- Human Systems Biology Laboratory, Instituto Nacional de Medicina Genómica (INMEGEN), Mexico City, Mexico
- Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias Médicas, Odontológicas y de la Salud, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Ciudad de México, Mexico
- Metabolic Research Laboratory, Department of Medicine and Nutrition, University of Guanajuato, León, Guanajuato, Mexico
| | - Jean Paul Sánchez-Castañeda
- Human Systems Biology Laboratory, Instituto Nacional de Medicina Genómica (INMEGEN), Mexico City, Mexico
- Programa de Maestría en Ciencias Bioquímicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Ciudad de México, Mexico
| | - Daniel Neri-Rosario
- Human Systems Biology Laboratory, Instituto Nacional de Medicina Genómica (INMEGEN), Mexico City, Mexico
- Programa de Maestría en Ciencias Bioquímicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Ciudad de México, Mexico
| | - Cristian Padrón-Manrique
- Human Systems Biology Laboratory, Instituto Nacional de Medicina Genómica (INMEGEN), Mexico City, Mexico
- Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Ciudad de México, Mexico
| | - David Giron-Villalobos
- Human Systems Biology Laboratory, Instituto Nacional de Medicina Genómica (INMEGEN), Mexico City, Mexico
- Programa de Maestría en Ciencias Bioquímicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Ciudad de México, Mexico
| | - Cristian Mendoza-Ortíz
- Human Systems Biology Laboratory, Instituto Nacional de Medicina Genómica (INMEGEN), Mexico City, Mexico
- Programa de Maestría en Ciencias Bioquímicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Ciudad de México, Mexico
| | - Osbaldo Resendis-Antonio
- Human Systems Biology Laboratory, Instituto Nacional de Medicina Genómica (INMEGEN), Mexico City, Mexico
- Coordinación de la Investigación Científica – Red de Apoyo a la Investigación, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Ciudad de México, Mexico
- Centro de Ciencias de la Complejidad, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Ciudad de México, Mexico
- *Correspondence: Osbaldo Resendis-Antonio,
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8
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Banchi E, Manna V, Fonti V, Fabbro C, Celussi M. Improving environmental monitoring of Vibrionaceae in coastal ecosystems through 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL 2022; 29:67466-67482. [PMID: 36056283 PMCID: PMC9492620 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-022-22752-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2022] [Accepted: 08/23/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
The Vibrionaceae family groups genetically and metabolically diverse bacteria thriving in all marine environments. Despite often representing a minor fraction of bacterial assemblages, members of this family can exploit a wide variety of nutritional sources, which makes them important players in biogeochemical dynamics. Furthermore, several Vibrionaceae species are well-known pathogens, posing a threat to human and animal health. Here, we applied the phylogenetic placement coupled with a consensus-based approach using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, aiming to reach a reliable and fine-level Vibrionaceae characterization and identify the dynamics of blooming, ecologically important, and potentially pathogenic species in different sites of the northern Adriatic Sea. Water samples were collected monthly at a Long-Term Ecological Research network site from 2018 to 2021, and in spring and summer of 2019 and 2020 at two sites affected by depurated sewage discharge. The 41 identified Vibrionaceae species represented generally below 1% of the sampled communities; blooms (up to ~ 11%) mainly formed by Vibrio chagasii and Vibrio owensii occurred in summer, linked to increasing temperature and particulate matter concentration. Pathogenic species such as Vibrio anguilllarum, Vibrio tapetis, and Photobacterium damselae were found in low abundance. Depuration plant samples were characterized by a lower abundance and diversity of Vibrionaceae species compared to seawater, highlighting that Vibrionaceae dynamics at sea are unlikely to be related to wastewater inputs. Our work represents a further step to improve the molecular approach based on short reads, toward a shared, updated, and curated phylogeny of the Vibrionaceae family.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Banchi
- National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics - OGS, Via A. Piccard, 54, 34151, Trieste, Italy.
| | - Vincenzo Manna
- National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics - OGS, Via A. Piccard, 54, 34151, Trieste, Italy
| | - Viviana Fonti
- National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics - OGS, Via A. Piccard, 54, 34151, Trieste, Italy
| | - Cinzia Fabbro
- National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics - OGS, Via A. Piccard, 54, 34151, Trieste, Italy
| | - Mauro Celussi
- National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics - OGS, Via A. Piccard, 54, 34151, Trieste, Italy
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Sapoval N, Liu Y, Lou EG, Hopkins L, Ensor KB, Schneider R, Stadler LB, Treangen TJ. QuaID: Enabling Earlier Detection of Recently Emerged SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern in Wastewater. MEDRXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR HEALTH SCIENCES 2022:2021.09.08.21263279. [PMID: 35898338 PMCID: PMC9327636 DOI: 10.1101/2021.09.08.21263279] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
As clinical testing declines, wastewater monitoring can provide crucial surveillance on the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VoC) in communities. Multiple recent studies support that wastewater-based SARS-CoV-2 detection of circulating VoC can precede clinical cases by up to two weeks. Furthermore, wastewater based epidemiology enables wide population-based screening and study of viral evolutionary dynamics. However, highly sensitive detection of emerging variants remains a complex task due to the pooled nature of environmental samples and genetic material degradation. In this paper we propose quasi-unique mutations for VoC identification, implemented in a novel bioinformatics tool (QuaID) for VoC detection based on quasi-unique mutations. The benefits of QuaID are three-fold: (i) provides up to 3 week earlier VoC detection compared to existing approaches, (ii) enables more sensitive VoC detection, which is shown to be tolerant of >50% mutation drop-out, and (iii) leverages all mutational signatures, including insertions & deletions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicolae Sapoval
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX 77005, USA
| | - Yunxi Liu
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX 77005, USA
| | - Esther G Lou
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX 77005, USA
| | - Loren Hopkins
- Houston Health Department, 8000 N. Stadium Dr., Houston, TX 77054
- Department of Statistics, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX 77005, USA
| | - Katherine B Ensor
- Department of Statistics, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX 77005, USA
| | | | - Lauren B Stadler
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX 77005, USA
| | - Todd J Treangen
- Department of Computer Science, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX 77005, USA
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