AI Insight
Researchers developed digestome, a marker-gene panel for analyzing microbiomes in anaerobic digestion systems that uses only commercially-free databases, unlike existing tools that require paid licenses. The panel accurately identifies metabolic pathways in digester bacteria, particularly methanogenesis routes, with testing on 1,401 metagenome-assembled genomes showing zero false methanogenesis assignments to non-methanogens and correct identification of acetate-using methanogens. The tool also distinguishes between enzymes designed for export versus internal use, reducing false cellulolytic capability assignments from 597 to 50 genomes.
Why it matters
This freely-available tool enables commercial biogas operators to access fee-for-service microbiome analysis that was previously blocked by licensing restrictions, allowing them to optimize digester performance. The improved accuracy in pathway assignment, particularly for methanogenesis and hydrolysis functions, provides actionable operational insights for the biogas industry.
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⚠️ Preprint – Noch nicht peer-reviewed
Dieser Artikel wurde noch nicht von unabhängigen Experten begutachtet. Die Ergebnisse sind vorläufig und sollten mit Vorsicht interpretiert werden.
Functional profiling of anaerobic digestion microbiomes is routinely performed against KEGG or MetaCyc, both of which require a paid licence for commercial use. This blocks fee-for-service analysis for biogas operators, the setting where the results have the most immediate operational value. We present digestome, a curated marker-gene panel for anaerobic digestion built exclusively on sources that are free for commercial use (NCBIfam, public domain; Pfam, CC0; Rhea, CC BY), together with a scorer that reports pathway completeness, branch capability and, for hydrolysis, whether the enzyme is built for export. Benchmarked against 1,401 metagenome-assembled genomes from 134 anaerobic digesters, the panel assigned no methanogenesis route to any of 1,361 non-methanogens, and every acetoclastic call fell within Methanosarcina or Methanothrix. The result held for 3,043 species representatives from the Genome Taxonomy Database, spanning 203 phyla, which are built differently from binned metagenomes: the only background genomes given a route were two archaea carrying mcrA, and none of the 90 anaerobic methane and alkane oxidisers was given one. Specificity against non-methanogens does not show that a methanogen gets the right route: with a family-level check, 59 of 156 acetoclastic calls in that sample fell on methylotrophic genera that do not use acetate, and a lineage policy removed them, with 14 more left unconfirmed in unnamed genera. Testing whether a catalytic domain shares a polypeptide with an export module reduced the genomes credited with cellulolytic capacity from 597 to 50.