Axiom Microbiome Array, the next generation microarray for high-throughput pathogen and microbiome analysis

PLoS One. 2019 Feb 8;14(2):e0212045. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0212045. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Microarrays have proven to be useful in rapid detection of many viruses and bacteria. Pathogen detection microarrays have been used to diagnose viral and bacterial infections in clinical samples and to evaluate the safety of biological drug materials. In this study, the Axiom Microbiome Array was evaluated to determine its sensitivity, specificity and utility in microbiome analysis of veterinary clinical samples. The array contains probes designed to detect more than 12,000 species of viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa and archaea, yielding the most comprehensive microbial detection platform built to date. The array was able to detect Shigella and Aspergillus at 100 genome copies, and vaccinia virus DNA at 1,000 genome copies. The Axiom Microbiome Array made correct species-level calls in mock microbial community samples. When tested against serum, tissue, and fecal samples from pigs experimentally co-infected with porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus and porcine circovirus type 2, the microarray correctly detected these two viruses and other common viral and bacterial microbiome species. This cost-effective and high-throughput microarray is an efficient tool to rapidly analyze large numbers of clinical and environmental samples for the presence of multiple viral and bacterial pathogens.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Aspergillus fumigatus / genetics
  • Aspergillus fumigatus / isolation & purification
  • Feces / microbiology
  • Feces / virology
  • Genome, Bacterial
  • Genome, Viral
  • High-Throughput Screening Assays
  • Microarray Analysis / methods*
  • Microbiota*
  • Nucleic Acid Hybridization
  • Poxviridae / genetics
  • Poxviridae / isolation & purification
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Shigella flexneri / genetics
  • Shigella flexneri / isolation & purification
  • Swine

Grants and funding

This research work was supported by the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory Derived Research and Development effort. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. There was no additional external funding received for this study.