Boolean analysis reveals systematic interactions among low-abundance species in the human gut microbiome.

The analysis of microbiome compositions in the human gut has gained increasing interest due to the broader availability of data and functional databases and substantial progress in data analysis methods, but also due to the high relevance of the microbiome in human health and disease. While most ana...

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Main Authors: Jens Christian Claussen, Jurgita Skiecevičienė, Jun Wang, Philipp Rausch, Tom H Karlsen, Wolfgang Lieb, John F Baines, Andre Franke, Marc-Thorsten Hütt
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2017-06-01
Series:PLoS Computational Biology
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005361&type=printable
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author Jens Christian Claussen
Jurgita Skiecevičienė
Jun Wang
Philipp Rausch
Tom H Karlsen
Wolfgang Lieb
John F Baines
Andre Franke
Marc-Thorsten Hütt
author_facet Jens Christian Claussen
Jurgita Skiecevičienė
Jun Wang
Philipp Rausch
Tom H Karlsen
Wolfgang Lieb
John F Baines
Andre Franke
Marc-Thorsten Hütt
author_sort Jens Christian Claussen
collection DOAJ
description The analysis of microbiome compositions in the human gut has gained increasing interest due to the broader availability of data and functional databases and substantial progress in data analysis methods, but also due to the high relevance of the microbiome in human health and disease. While most analyses infer interactions among highly abundant species, the large number of low-abundance species has received less attention. Here we present a novel analysis method based on Boolean operations applied to microbial co-occurrence patterns. We calibrate our approach with simulated data based on a dynamical Boolean network model from which we interpret the statistics of attractor states as a theoretical proxy for microbiome composition. We show that for given fractions of synergistic and competitive interactions in the model our Boolean abundance analysis can reliably detect these interactions. Analyzing a novel data set of 822 microbiome compositions of the human gut, we find a large number of highly significant synergistic interactions among these low-abundance species, forming a connected network, and a few isolated competitive interactions.
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issn 1553-734X
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language English
publishDate 2017-06-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
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series PLoS Computational Biology
spelling doaj-art-7fd1664e0aec4f5f920cbad35e524f952025-08-20T03:11:25ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Computational Biology1553-734X1553-73582017-06-01136e100536110.1371/journal.pcbi.1005361Boolean analysis reveals systematic interactions among low-abundance species in the human gut microbiome.Jens Christian ClaussenJurgita SkiecevičienėJun WangPhilipp RauschTom H KarlsenWolfgang LiebJohn F BainesAndre FrankeMarc-Thorsten HüttThe analysis of microbiome compositions in the human gut has gained increasing interest due to the broader availability of data and functional databases and substantial progress in data analysis methods, but also due to the high relevance of the microbiome in human health and disease. While most analyses infer interactions among highly abundant species, the large number of low-abundance species has received less attention. Here we present a novel analysis method based on Boolean operations applied to microbial co-occurrence patterns. We calibrate our approach with simulated data based on a dynamical Boolean network model from which we interpret the statistics of attractor states as a theoretical proxy for microbiome composition. We show that for given fractions of synergistic and competitive interactions in the model our Boolean abundance analysis can reliably detect these interactions. Analyzing a novel data set of 822 microbiome compositions of the human gut, we find a large number of highly significant synergistic interactions among these low-abundance species, forming a connected network, and a few isolated competitive interactions.https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005361&type=printable
spellingShingle Jens Christian Claussen
Jurgita Skiecevičienė
Jun Wang
Philipp Rausch
Tom H Karlsen
Wolfgang Lieb
John F Baines
Andre Franke
Marc-Thorsten Hütt
Boolean analysis reveals systematic interactions among low-abundance species in the human gut microbiome.
PLoS Computational Biology
title Boolean analysis reveals systematic interactions among low-abundance species in the human gut microbiome.
title_full Boolean analysis reveals systematic interactions among low-abundance species in the human gut microbiome.
title_fullStr Boolean analysis reveals systematic interactions among low-abundance species in the human gut microbiome.
title_full_unstemmed Boolean analysis reveals systematic interactions among low-abundance species in the human gut microbiome.
title_short Boolean analysis reveals systematic interactions among low-abundance species in the human gut microbiome.
title_sort boolean analysis reveals systematic interactions among low abundance species in the human gut microbiome
url https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005361&type=printable
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