16S/18S/ITS amplicon sequencing has now been a well-established method. Due to its low cost, shorter cycle and low quality requirement of the sample, 16S/18S/ITS amplicon sequencing is widely used in the study of microorganisms.
16S/18S/ITS amplicon sequencing reveals the species of microorganisms in environmental samples and their differences, relative abundance, population structure and evolutionary relationships. It plays an important role in the research of microorganisms and human health, agriculture and animal husbandry, environmental detection and treatment, and utilization of microorganism resources.
Health
•Intestine
The number of intestinal microorganisms is more than 10 times that of human body’s own cells, which plays an extremely important role in metabolism, growth, immunity and disease emergence. Many research results show that intestinal microorganisms are directly related to the pathogenesis of various diseases, such as cancer, obesity and neurodegenerative diseases. Main research directions of intestinal microorganisms at present are as follow:
i. Differences in intestinal flora between disease group and healthy group.
ii. Study the intestinal flora of drug or dietary intervention groups.
iii. Intestinal flora of the same population in different growth stages.
iv. Study the intestinal flora of a group during the development of a disease.
v. Study microorganisms in multiple body parts of the same group.
•Reproductive tract
The microorganisms in reproductive tract are important for women’s health, reproductive function and infant’s birth. 16S/18S/ITS amplicon sequencing can obtain the information of most microorganisms in the genital tract. Through bioinformatics/statistical analysis, a large number of data are processed and analyzed to find the microbial community composition related to environmental factors (antibiotic use, bacterial inflammation, etc.) in the genital tract.
•Oral cavity and respiratory tract
Oral cavity is an important ecological area for human microorganisms to colonize and survive. Oral cavity microorganisms include not only bacteria, but also fungi, viruses, spirochetes and archaea. Under normal circumstances, the close and complex interactions between oral microbial communities and hosts maintain the health of the host, and breaking this ecological balance will lead to disease. Oral diseases such as dental caries, periodontal disease and oral cancer seriously affect human life and health.
The microorganism colonized in the respiratory tract and human body are always in a dynamic ecological balance, which plays an important role in maintaining human health and is closely related to the development of various upper respiratory diseases.
Analysis of oral and respiratory tract microbial diversity with 16S/18S/ITS amplicon sequencing is able to obtain a precise analysis of microbial diversity, community structure, species relationship, and increase people’s understanding of relationships among oral health, respiratory tract health and disease-related microorganisms.
•Skin
The main function of skin is to act as a physical barrier to protect the body from foreign organisms or toxic substances. At the same time, skin is also a part of human body in contact with the external environment, so various microorganisms might affect us, including bacteria, fungi, viruses and so on. Once the balance between the microbiome and the skin surface tissue is broken, it will lead to skin diseases or infections. 16S/18S/ITS amplicon sequencing systematically analyzes the community of skin microflora and their functions, allows people to better understanding the health, disease and infection of skin, makes the structure characteristics of skin microbiome and its relationship with skin tissue and environment clear.
In addition, 16S/18S/ITS amplicon sequencing can also be used for microbiological safety detection of food and medicine.
CD Genomics is dedicated to providing reliable microbial diversity analysis services, including 16S/18S/ITS amplicon sequencing, full-length 16S/18S/ITS amplicon sequencing, and metagenomic shotgun sequencing. More at our website.
