TY - JOUR A1 - Lyu, Lin A1 - Li, Xue A1 - Feng, Ru A1 - Zhou, Xin A1 - Guha, Tuhin K. A1 - Yu, Xiaofei A1 - Chen, Guo Qiang A1 - Yao, Yufeng A1 - Su, Bing A1 - Zou, Duowu A1 - Snyder, Michael P. A1 - Chen, Lei T1 - Simultaneous profiling of host expression and microbial abundance by spatial metatranscriptome sequencing Y1 - 2023/03/01 JF - Genome Research JO - Genome Research SP - 401 EP - 411 DO - 10.1101/gr.277178.122 VL - 33 IS - 3 UR - http://genome.cshlp.org/content/33/3/401.abstract N2 - We developed an analysis pipeline that can extract microbial sequences from spatial transcriptomic (ST) data and assign taxonomic labels, generating a spatial microbial abundance matrix in addition to the default host expression matrix, enabling simultaneous analysis of host expression and microbial distribution. We called the pipeline spatial metatranscriptome (SMT) and applied it on both human and murine intestinal sections and validated the spatial microbial abundance information with alternative assays. Biological insights were gained from these novel data that showed host–microbe interaction at various spatial scales. Finally, we tested experimental modification that can increase microbial capture while preserving host spatial expression quality and, by use of positive controls, quantitatively showed the capture efficiency and recall of our methods. This proof-of-concept work shows the feasibility of SMT analysis and paves the way for further experimental optimization and application. ER -