Comprehensive mouse microbiota genome catalog reveals major difference to its human counterpart

PLoS Comput Biol. 2022 Mar 8;18(3):e1009947. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009947. eCollection 2022 Mar.

Abstract

Mouse is the most used model for studying the impact of microbiota on its host, but the repertoire of species from the mouse gut microbiome remains largely unknown. Accordingly, the similarity between human and mouse microbiomes at a low taxonomic level is not clear. We construct a comprehensive mouse microbiota genome (CMMG) catalog by assembling all currently available mouse gut metagenomes and combining them with published reference and metagenome-assembled genomes. The 41'798 genomes cluster into 1'573 species, of which 78.1% are uncultured, and we discovered 226 new genera, seven new families, and one new order. CMMG enables an unprecedented coverage of the mouse gut microbiome exceeding 86%, increases the mapping rate over four-fold, and allows functional microbiota analyses of human and mouse linking them to the driver species. Comparing CMMG to microbiota from the unified human gastrointestinal genomes shows an overlap of 62% at the genus but only 10% at the species level, demonstrating that human and mouse gut microbiota are largely distinct. CMMG contains the most comprehensive collection of consistently functionally annotated species of the mouse and human microbiome to date, setting the ground for analysis of new and reanalysis of existing datasets at an unprecedented depth.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bacteria / genetics
  • Gastrointestinal Microbiome* / genetics
  • Humans
  • Metagenome / genetics
  • Metagenomics
  • Mice
  • Microbiota* / genetics
  • Phylogeny

Grants and funding

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (ERC Consolidator Grant agreement No. 815962, Healthybiota), and in part from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), project grant number: 310030_205042 to M.T. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.