Deep sequencing of microbial communities in cystic fibrosis airways

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common autosomal recessive disorder in Caucasian individuals, affecting ~1/2,500. Lung disease results in the highest morbidity and mortality in CF.

DNA from 22 samples from 6 CF patients with lung disease was sequenced in multiplex, and microbes classified with Kraken2. Most microorganisms identified were oral related.

Tânia said that because short-read 16S does not sequence the whole gene, ‘it can potentially lead to misleading results’; this is why it couldn’t detect a particular species in one sample, whereas WGS did.

57 PromethION WGS reads were enough to determine the strain of S. aureus found in one patient, using the tool Sketchy.

Tânia: Microbial species identification using nanopore WGS is quicker and more sensitive than other WGS methods.