MetaLab-MAG: A Metaproteomic Data Analysis Platform for Genome-Level Characterization of Microbiomes from the Metagenome-Assembled Genomes Database

The studies of microbial communities have drawn increased
attention
in various research fields such as agriculture, environment, and human
health. Recently, metaproteomics has become a powerful tool to interpret
the roles of the community members by investigating the expressed
proteins of the microbes. However, analyzing the metaproteomic data
sets at genome resolution is still challenging because of the lack
of efficient bioinformatics tools. Here we develop MetaLab-MAG, a
specially designed tool for the characterization of microbiomes from
metagenome-assembled genomes databases. MetaLab-MAG was evaluated
by analyzing various human gut microbiota data sets and performed
comparably or better than searching the gene catalog protein database
directly. MetaLab-MAG can quantify the genome-level microbiota compositions
and supports both label-free and isobaric labeling-based quantification
strategies. MetaLab-MAG removes the obstacles of metaproteomic data
analysis and provides the researchers with in-depth and comprehensive
information from the microbiomes.