Conceptual implementation

The mOTUs tool performs taxonomic profiling of metagenomics and metatrancriptomics samples, i.e. it identifies species and their relative abundance present in a sample. It is based on a set of mOTUs (~species) contained in the mOTUs database. The mOTUs database is created from reference genomes, metagenomic samples and metagenome assembled genomes (MAGs):

A mOTUs database is composed of three types of mOTUs:

• ref-mOTUs, which represent known species,

• meta-mOTUs, which represent unknown species obtained from metagenomic samples,

• ext-mOTUs, which represent unknown species obtained from MAGs.

Note that meta- and ext-mOTUs will not have a species level annotation.

The mOTUs database undergoes regular updates. Major releases are depicted in the graph below, showing the number of mOTUs for each of the three groups, indicated by the same color-coding as the previous graph.

When profiling (motus profile) a metagenomic sample, the mOTUs tool maps the reads from the sample to the genes in the different mOTUs:

mOTUs marker genes

The mOTUs tool utilizes a set of 10 single-copy universal marker genes as a basis for its analysis:

Gene family	Description
COG0012	Predicted GTPase, probable translation factor
COG0016	Phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase alpha subunit
COG0018	Arginyl-tRNA synthetase
COG0172	Seryl-tRNA synthetase
COG0215	Cysteinyl-tRNA synthetase
COG0495	Leucyl-tRNA synthetase
COG0525	Valyl-tRNA synthetase
COG0533	Metal-dependent proteases with possible chaperone activity
COG0541	Signal recognition particle GTPase (Ffh)
COG0552	Signal recognition particle GTPase (FtsY)