Human gut microbiome raw sequence reads

A mechanistic understanding of the purported health benefits conferred by consumption of probiotic bacteria has been limited by our knowledge of the resident gut microbiota and its interaction with the host. Here, we detail the impact of a single-organism probiotic, Lactobacillus casei Zhang (LcZ), on the structure and functional dynamics (gene expression) of the gut microbiota in a study of 6 healthy individuals, 20 to 30 years old. The analysis revealed that while the overall community composition was stable as assessed by metagenomics DNA profiling, the transcriptional response of the gut microbiota was modulated by probiotic treatment. Comparison of transcriptional profiles based on taxonomic composition yielded distinct transcriptome groups that displayed considerable differences in functional dynamics.