PNNL

Abstract

Despite the promise of the gut microbiome to forecast human health, few studies expose the microbial functions underpinning such predictions. To comprehensively inventory gut microorganisms and their gene content that control trimethylamine induced cardiovascular disease, we mined over 200,000 gut-derived genomes from cultivated and uncultivated microbial 20 lineages. Creating MAGICdb (Methylated Amine Gene Inventory of Catabolism database) we designated an atherosclerotic profile for 6,341 microbial genomes associated with heart disease. Using MAGICdb, we mined microbial contributions to atherosclerosis actively expressed from the guts of 412 humans. From the feces of healthy and diseased subjects, we demonstrated that MAGICdb gene markers predicted cardiovascular disease as effectively as traditional blood diagnostics. This functional microbiome catalog is a public, exploitable resource, enabling a new era of microbiota-based therapeutics.