Better Measurement of the Microbiome by Statistical Modeling of High-throughput Sequencing

Dr. Benjamin Callahan, Department of Population Health and Pathobiology, North Carolina State University

Host: Dr. Manuel Kleiner

Abstract: Long read assemblies from PacBio have produced megabase sized contigs and complete or ‘closed’ population genomes for the dominant species in community. Furthermore, we show that taxon specific patterns of DNA methylation (from restriction modification systems) can be used to bin unidentified sequence fragments to dinstinct species. Long read data facilitates discovery of horizontal gene transfers and novel population level structural variants in uncultured bacteria, including transposes, CRISPRs and prophage. These assemblies have facilitated our analysis of this sulfur cycling symbiosis: in the genome of the sulfate reducing bacterium in the consortia, we discovered a horizontally transferred genomic island containing a light sensitive sodium pumping rhodopsin – the first report of phototrophy in a sulfate reducing bacterium.