title: Integrating next-generation sequencing and traditional tongue diagnosis to determine tongue coating microbiome.
abstract: Tongue diagnosis is a unique method in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). This is the first investigation on the association between traditional tongue diagnosis and the tongue coating microbiome using next-generation sequencing. The study included 19 gastritis patients with a typical white-greasy or yellow-dense tongue coating corresponding to TCM Cold or Hot Syndrome respectively, as well as eight healthy volunteers. An Illumina paired-end, double-barcode 16S rRNA sequencing protocol was designed to profile the tongue-coating microbiome, from which approximately 3.7 million V6 tags for each sample were obtained. We identified 123 and 258 species-level OTUs that were enriched in patients with Cold/Hot Syndromes, respectively, representing "Cold Microbiota" and "Hot Microbiota". We further constructed the tongue microbiota-imbalanced networks associated with Cold/Hot Syndromes. The results reveal an important connection between the tongue-coating microbiome and traditional tongue diagnosis, and illustrate the potential of the tongue-coating microbiome as a novel holistic biomarker for characterizing patient subtypes.
authors.affiliation: Bioinformatics Division, TNLIST and Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Bai
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Xujun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Liyang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Junfeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Xuegong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Shao
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D003080:Cold Temperature; D005756:Gastritis / Q000382:microbiology; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D054892:Metagenome; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D014059:Tongue / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S