Affiliation:
1. Biomedical Innovation Center and Beijing Key Laboratory for Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines, Beijing Shijitan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
Abstract
In this study, to better identify horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in individual samples, we introduce a new co-barcoding sequencing system called metagenomics co-barcoding sequencing (MECOS), which has three significant improvements: (i) long DNA fragment extraction, (ii) a special transposome insertion, (iii) hybridization of DNA to barcode beads, and (4) an integrated bioinformatic pipeline. Using our approach, we have over 10-fold increased contig length compared to short-reads mNGS, and observed over 50-fold HGT events after we corrected the potential wrong HGT events. Our results indicate the presence of approximately 3,000 HGT blocks, involving roughly 6,000 genes and 100 taxonomic groups in individual samples. Notably, these HGT events are predominantly enriched in genes that confer tetracycline resistance via ribosomal protection. MECOS is a useful tool for investigating HGT and the evolution of natural microbial communities within hosts, thereby advancing our understanding of microbial ecology and evolution.
Funder
MOST | National Key Research and Development Program of China
MOST | National Natural Science Foundation of China
Beijing Hospital Authority
Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Adminitrative Commission of Zhongguancun Science Park
Beijing Hospitals Authority Youth Programme
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Infectious Diseases,Cell Biology,Microbiology (medical),Genetics,General Immunology and Microbiology,Ecology,Physiology