The human microbiome is known to affect many things, including, health status, w
ID: 271773 • Letter: T
Question
The human microbiome is known to affect many things, including, health status, weight, etc. You are interested in whether the abundance of bacterial species in the gut is associated with genetic variation in the host. Describe the experiment you will do to collect abundance data for many bacterial species, and DNA variation in the host. Describe the type of analysis that you will perform to find out whether genetic variation in the host is associated with the abundance of a given bacteria type in your datasetExplanation / Answer
One of the key considerations in host gut- microbiome interactions is the genetics of the host, which shape the composition of the gut microbiota. Other factors include diet and lifestyle. Certain variations in the host’s genetic makeup would predispose an individual towards developing microbiome dysbiosis. Single gene variation ( eg: LCT, NOD2 and FUT2) are also known to affect composition of the gut microbiome.
One of the ways to study this association is Microbiome genome-wide association (mGWAS) analysis. This approach is promising for the identification of additional host genetic variants which are most likely to affect the progression of a disease by perturbing the microbiome composition.
mGWAS are basically cohort based studies that combine human genotyping or whole-genome sequencing with that of the analysis of microbiome (16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA); or metagenomic sequencing. It can be performed from the same individual to study how genetics of the host and composition of the microbiome affect health and disease.
Related Questions
Navigate
Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.