Exploring Social Interactions in Microbial Communities of the Human Gut
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Program
Publicerad
2019
Författare
Zorrilla, Francisco
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
We develop a metagenomics workflow, integrating an array of existing bioinformatics and
metabolic modeling tools, aimed at interrogating social interactions in bacterial communities of
the human gut microbiome. From WGS metagenomic datasets, metagenome assembled
genomes (MAGs) are reconstructed, which are then converted into genome-scale metabolic
models (GEMs) for in silico simulations of cross feeding interactions within sample based
communities. Abundance estimates for community members are estimated by mapping
metagenomic samples to the generated MAGs, which are used in combination with the
simulated cross feeding interactions for the generation of explanatory and statistically significant
linear models. We conclude that there is indeed a correlation, ranging from weak to moderate,
between gut microbiome members’ abundance and set of metabolic cross-feeding interactions
across samples. A more comprehensive analysis incorporating multiple datasets needs to be
conducted to strengthen and expand the findings of this work.