Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Highlight
  • Published:

Disease genomics

Associations go metagenome-wide

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 13, pages 756–757 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

this approach promises a host of new insights into microbial functions that are perturbed for a number of important human diseases

Jun Wang and colleagues developed an approach that is analogous to the genome-wide association study design: they compared the composition of the gut metagenome between Chinese individuals with T2D and an unaffected control group. The first step was to develop a suitable reference gut metagenome, as the existing reference did not include data from the Chinese population. Whole-genome sequencing was carried out on faecal samples from 145 Chinese individuals (71 cases and 74 controls), and the resulting metagenomic information was used to update the existing reference. Next, the authors carried out a two-stage MGWA study. First, they quantified gut microbial genes from the same 145 cases and controls and identified genes that are significantly enriched in individuals with T2D. These associations were then validated in a second analysis using another 200 Chinese individuals, giving a set of 52,484 reliable gene associations.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Qin, J. et al. A metagenome-wide association study of gut microbiota in type 2 diabetes. Nature 26 Sep 2012 (doi:10.1038/nature11450)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Louisa Flintoft
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Flintoft, L. Associations go metagenome-wide. Nat Rev Genet 13, 756–757 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3347

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3347

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Translational Research newsletter — top stories in biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma.

Get what matters in translational research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Translational Research