Elucidation of Intestinal Prokaryotic and Viral Flora Characteristics from Japanese Gut Metagenome

Abstract

The gut microbiome plays important roles in digestion, metabolism, and immunity, and its association with systemic and metabolic diseases has been highlighted. In recent years, studies of intestinal microbiota using metagenomic shotgun sequencing have progressed, and our laboratory has constructed the database of gut prokaryotic and viral genomes from the gut metagenome of the Japanese population. We have identified population-specific enrichments such as Bacillus subtilis derived from natto, and β-porphyranase, an enzyme involved in the metabolism of laver. Novel viral species were identified in the gut viral genomes, and the association between crAss-like phages and several diseases were also demonstrated. Metagenome-wide association studies of rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus have also shown species-level associations between the gut metagenome and the disease, and its interaction with the human genome.