sMETASeq: Combined Profiling of Microbiota and Host Small RNAs
Robin Mjelle,
Kristin Roseth Aass,
Wenche Sjursen,
Eva Hofsli,
Pål Sætrom
Affiliations
Robin Mjelle
Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, Trondheim 7030, Norway; Bioinformatics Core Facility-BioCore, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, Trondheim 7491, Norway; K.G. Jebsen Center for Genetic Epidemiology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, Trondheim 7491, Norway; Corresponding author
Kristin Roseth Aass
Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, Trondheim 7030, Norway; Centre of Molecular Inflammation Research, Department of Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim 7030, Norway
Wenche Sjursen
Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, Trondheim 7030, Norway; Department of Medical Genetics, St. Olavs Hospital, Trondheim 7030, Norway
Eva Hofsli
Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, Trondheim 7030, Norway; The Cancer Clinic, St. Olavs Hospital, Trondheim University Hospital, Trondheim 7030, Norway
Pål Sætrom
Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, Trondheim 7030, Norway; Department of Computer and Information Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, Trondheim 7491, Norway; Bioinformatics Core Facility-BioCore, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, Trondheim 7491, Norway; K.G. Jebsen Center for Genetic Epidemiology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, Trondheim 7491, Norway
Summary: Understanding microbial communities' roles in human health and disease requires methods that accurately characterize the microbial composition and their activity and effects within human biological samples. We present sMETASeq (small RNA Metagenomics by Sequencing), a novel method that uses sequencing of small RNAs to jointly measure host small RNA expression and create metagenomic profiles and detect small bacterial RNAs. We evaluated the performance of sMETASeq on a mock bacterial community and demonstrated its use on different human samples, including colon cancer, oral leukoplakia, cervix cancer, and a panel of human biofluids. In all datasets, the detected microbes reflected the biology of the different sample types.