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Sommer, A. ; Peters, A. ; Rommel, M. ; Cyrys, J. ; Grallert, H. ; Haller, D.* ; Müller, C.L. ; Bind, M.C.*

A randomization-based causal inference framework for uncovering environmental exposure effects on human gut microbiota.

PLoS Comput. Biol. 18:e1010044 (2022)
Verlagsversion Forschungsdaten DOI PMC
Open Access Gold
Creative Commons Lizenzvertrag
Statistical analysis of microbial genomic data within epidemiological cohort studies holds the promise to assess the influence of environmental exposures on both the host and the host-associated microbiome. However, the observational character of prospective cohort data and the intricate characteristics of microbiome data make it challenging to discover causal associations between environment and microbiome. Here, we introduce a causal inference framework based on the Rubin Causal Model that can help scientists to investigate such environment-host microbiome relationships, to capitalize on existing, possibly powerful, test statistics, and test plausible sharp null hypotheses. Using data from the German KORA cohort study, we illustrate our framework by designing two hypothetical randomized experiments with interventions of (i) air pollution reduction and (ii) smoking prevention. We study the effects of these interventions on the human gut microbiome by testing shifts in microbial diversity, changes in individual microbial abundances, and microbial network wiring between groups of matched subjects via randomization-based inference. In the smoking prevention scenario, we identify a small interconnected group of taxa worth further scrutiny, including Christensenellaceae and Ruminococcaceae genera, that have been previously associated with blood metabolite changes. These findings demonstrate that our framework may uncover potentially causal links between environmental exposure and the gut microbiome from observational data. We anticipate the present statistical framework to be a good starting point for further discoveries on the role of the gut microbiome in environmental health.
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Publikationstyp Artikel: Journalartikel
Dokumenttyp Wissenschaftlicher Artikel
Sprache englisch
Veröffentlichungsjahr 2022
HGF-Berichtsjahr 2022
ISSN (print) / ISBN 1553-734X
e-ISSN 1553-7358
Quellenangaben Band: 18, Heft: 5, Seiten: , Artikelnummer: e1010044 Supplement: ,
Verlag Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Begutachtungsstatus Peer reviewed
Institut(e) Institute of Epidemiology (EPI)
Institute of Computational Biology (ICB)
POF Topic(s) 30202 - Environmental Health
30205 - Bioengineering and Digital Health
Forschungsfeld(er) Genetics and Epidemiology
Enabling and Novel Technologies
PSP-Element(e) G-504000-010
G-503800-001
G-504090-001
G-504091-002
G-504000-004
PubMed ID 35533202
Erfassungsdatum 2022-06-09