Metagenomics of African Stool Samples. human gut metagenome

Pediatric diarrheal diseases remain a significant cause of childhood morbidity and mortality in developing countries. While there are many known causes for diarrhea in children, very little is known about how pathogenic and commensal microorganisms in the gastrointestinal tract interact to cause or prevent diseases. The goal of this study was to identify all pathogenic and commensal organisms present in diarrheal stool samples from children in sub-Saharan Africa. To this end, a subset of 60 RNA samples from the umbrella bioproject was selected for full metagenomic sequencing. The compositions of these enteric populations were compared between rotavirus-positive and rotavirus-negative diarrheal samples, as well as between diarrheal and normal stool samples. This study was part of a larger project that aimed to better understand enteric community relationships among rotaviruses, other diarrheal pathogens, and commensal microbiota.