Metagenomics of the Human Intestinal Tract, MetaHit. MetaHit - Human Intestinal Tract Metagenomes

MetaHIT human intestinal tract metagenome project MetaHIT (Metagenomics of the Human Intestinal Tract; http://www.metahit.eu/) is a 7th Framework project of the European Commission, carried out by a consortium of 13 institutions from Europe and China. It focuses on the microorganisms of the gut, which are particularly abundant and complex and have an important role for human health and well-being. MetaHIT implements and integrates the following activities: 1.creation of a reference set of genes and genomes of intestinal microbes, using high fidelity metagenomic sequencing and full bacterial genome sequencing; 2.creation of the generic tools, based on the high density DNA arrays and high throughput DNA sequencing methods, to study the variation ofhuman gut microbiota; 3.use of the tools to search for associations between the genes present in the gut microbiota and disease, focusing on the Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and Obesity; 4.study of the genes associated with the disease, in terms of their function in microbes and their effect on the host, with the focus on host-microbe interactions; 5.development of an informatics resource to store, organize and analyze the heterogeneous information relevant to human gut microbiota and its effects on health; 6.creation of an interface with the stakeholders and general public to promote cooperation and coordination in the human metagenome field. The sequences were obtained from a stool sample of individuals (see http://www.metahit.eu/ for more details), enrolled in the obesity/IBD study. Total DNA was prepared from the sample, cloned in E. coli and randomly sequenced. This data is released as a community resource under the terms of the Fort Lauderdale agreement, for details see : http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/stellent/groups/corporatesite/@policy_communications/documents/web_document/wtd003207.pdf http://www.genome.gov/Pages/Research/WellcomeReport0303.pdf