title: IMNGS: A comprehensive open resource of processed 16S rRNA microbial profiles for ecology and diversity studies.
abstract: The SRA (Sequence Read Archive) serves as primary depository for massive amounts of Next Generation Sequencing data, and currently host over 100,000 16S rRNA gene amplicon-based microbial profiles from various host habitats and environments. This number is increasing rapidly and there is a dire need for approaches to utilize this pool of knowledge. Here we created IMNGS (Integrated Microbial Next Generation Sequencing), an innovative platform that uniformly and systematically screens for and processes all prokaryotic 16S rRNA gene amplicon datasets available in SRA and uses them to build sample-specific sequence databases and OTU-based profiles. Via a web interface, this integrative sequence resource can easily be queried by users. We show examples of how the approach allows testing the ecological importance of specific microorganisms in different hosts or ecosystems, and performing targeted diversity studies for selected taxonomic groups. The platform also offers a complete workflow for de novo analysis of users' own raw 16S rRNA gene amplicon datasets for the sake of comparison with existing data. IMNGS can be accessed at www.imngs.org.
authors.affiliation: ZIEL Institute for Food and Health, Core Facility NGS/Microbiome, Technische Universität München, Freising, Germany.
authors.forename: Ilias
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Lagkouvardos
authors.affiliation: ZIEL Institute for Food and Health, Core Facility NGS/Microbiome, Technische Universität München, Freising, Germany.
authors.forename: Divya
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Joseph
authors.affiliation: ZIEL Institute for Food and Health, Core Facility NGS/Microbiome, Technische Universität München, Freising, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kapfhammer
authors.affiliation: ZIEL Institute for Food and Health, Core Facility NGS/Microbiome, Technische Universität München, Freising, Germany.
authors.forename: Sabahattin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Giritli
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Ecosystem Science, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Horn
authors.affiliation: ZIEL Institute for Food and Health, Core Facility NGS/Microbiome, Technische Universität München, Freising, Germany.|Chair of Nutrition and Immunology, Technische Universität München, Freising, Germany.
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Haller
authors.affiliation: ZIEL Institute for Food and Health, Core Facility NGS/Microbiome, Technische Universität München, Freising, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Clavel