RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 CeMbio - The C. elegans microbiome resource JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 2020.04.22.055426 DO 10.1101/2020.04.22.055426 A1 Philipp Dirksen A1 Adrien Assié A1 Johannes Zimmermann A1 Fan Zhang A1 Adina-Malin Tietje A1 Sarah Arnaud Marsh A1 Marie-Anne Félix A1 Michael Shapira A1 Christoph Kaleta A1 Hinrich Schulenburg A1 Buck S. Samuel YR 2020 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/04/24/2020.04.22.055426.abstract AB The study of microbiomes by sequencing has revealed a plethora of correlations between microbial community composition and various life-history characteristics of the corresponding host species. However, inferring causation from correlation is often hampered by the sheer compositional complexity of microbiomes, even in simple organisms. Synthetic communities offer an effective approach to infer cause-effect relationships in host-microbiome systems. Yet the available communities suffer from several drawbacks, such as artificial (thus non-natural) choice of microbes, microbe-host mismatch (e.g. human microbes in gnotobiotic mice), or hosts lacking genetic tractability. Here we introduce CeMbio, a simplified natural Caenorhabditis elegans microbiota derived from our previous meta-analysis of the natural microbiome of this nematode. The CeMbio resource is amenable to all strengths of the C. elegans model system, strains included are readily culturable, they all colonize the worm gut individually, and comprise a robust community that distinctly affects nematode life-history. Several tools have additionally been developed for the CeMbio strains, including diagnostic PCR primers, completely sequenced genomes, and metabolic network models. With CeMbio, we provide a versatile resource and toolbox for the in-depth dissection of naturally relevant host-microbiome interactions in C. elegans.Dataset accession numbers Whole genome sequencing data (PRJNA624308); microbiome sequencing [PRJEB37101 and PRJEB37035]; data supplement on the GSA Figshare Portal.