Identifying Core Operons in Metagenomic Data

Hu, X.; Friedberg, I.

doi:10.1101/2019.12.20.885269

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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2019.12.20.885269

Identifying Core Operons in Metagenomic Data

Hu, X.·Friedberg, I.

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Abstract

An operon is a functional unit of DNA whose genes are co-transcribed on polycistronic mRNA, in a co-regulated fashion. Operons are a powerful mechanism of introducing functional complexity in bacteria, and are therefore of interest in microbial genetics, physiology, biochemistry, and evolution. Here we present a Pipeline for Operon Exploration in Metagenomes or POEM. At the heart of POEM lies the concept of a core operon, a functional unit enabled by a predicted operon in a metagenome. Using a series of benchmarks, we show the high accuracy of POEM, and demonstrate its use on a human gut metagenome sample. We conclude that POEM is a useful tool for analyzing metagenomes beyond the genomic level, and for identifying multi-gene functionalities and possible neofunctionalization in metagenomes. Availability: https://github.com/Rinoahu/POEM_py3k

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Hu, X., Friedberg, I.. 2019-12-21. Identifying Core Operons in Metagenomic Data. https://doi.org/10.1101/2019.12.20.885269

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