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American Gut: an Open Platform for Citizen Science Microbiome Research

Journal Article · · mSystems
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Although much work has linked the human microbiome to specific phenotypes and lifestyle variables, data from different projects have been challenging to integrate and the extent of microbial and molecular diversity in human stool remains unknown. Using standardized protocols from the Earth Microbiome Project and sample contributions from over 10,000 citizen-scientists, together with an open research network, we compare human microbiome specimens primarily from the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia to one another and to environmental samples. Our results show an unexpected range of beta-diversity in human stool microbiomes compared to environmental samples; demonstrate the utility of procedures for removing the effects of overgrowth during room-temperature shipping for revealing phenotype correlations; uncover new molecules and kinds of molecular communities in the human stool metabolome; and examine emergent associations among the microbiome, metabolome, and the diversity of plants that are consumed (rather than relying on reductive categorical variables such as veganism, which have little or no explanatory power). We also demonstrate the utility of the living data resource and cross-cohort comparison to confirm existing associations between the microbiome and psychiatric illness and to reveal the extent of microbiome change within one individual during surgery, providing a paradigm for open microbiome research and education. We show that a citizen science, self-selected cohort shipping samples through the mail at room temperature recaptures many known microbiome results from clinically collected cohorts and reveals new ones. Of particular interest is integrating n = 1 study data with the population data, showing that the extent of microbiome change after events such as surgery can exceed differences between distinct environmental biomes, and the effect of diverse plants in the diet, which we confirm with untargeted metabolomics on hundreds of samples.
Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Contributing Organization:
American Gut Project (AGP)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357; AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
1493907
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1504427
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA--113423; 148306
Journal Information:
mSystems, Journal Name: mSystems Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 3; ISSN 2379-5077
Publisher:
American Society for MicrobiologyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Clinician Guide to Microbiome Testing journal September 2018
GABA-modulating bacteria of the human gut microbiota journal December 2018
The neuroactive potential of the human gut microbiota in quality of life and depression journal February 2019
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Clinical metagenomics journal March 2019
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Regional variation limits applications of healthy gut microbiome reference ranges and disease models journal August 2018
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Confounding factors in the effect of gut microbiota on bone density journal August 2019
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Effect of Diet on the Gut Microbiota: Rethinking Intervention Duration journal November 2019

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