Horizontal Gene Transfer (HGT) is the process of transferring genetic materials between species. Through sharing genetic materials, microorganisms in the human microbiota form a network. The network can provide insights into understanding the microbiota. Here, we constructed the HGT networks from the gut microbiota sequencing data and performed network analysis to characterize the HGT networks of gut microbiota. We constructed the HGT network and perform the network analysis to two typical gut microbiota datasets, a 283-sample dataset of Mother-to-Child and a 148-sample dataset of longitudinal inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) metagenome. The results indicated that (1) the HGT networks are scale-free. (2) The networks expand their complexities, sizes, and edge numbers, accompanying the early stage of lives; and microbiota established in children shared high similarity as their mother (p-value = 0.0138), supporting the transmission of microbiota from mother to child. (3) Groups harbor group-specific network edges, and network communities, which can potentially serve as biomarkers. For instances, IBD patient group harbors highly abundant communities of Proteobacteria (p-value = 0.0194) and Actinobacteria (p-value = 0.0316); children host highly abundant communities of Proteobacteria (p-value = 2.8785 $$e^{-5}$$ ) and Actinobacteria (p-value = 0.0015), and the mothers host highly abundant communities of Firmicutes (p-value = 8.0091 $$e^{-7}$$ ). IBD patient networks contain more HGT edges in pathogenic genus, including Mycobacterium, Sutterella, and Pseudomonas. Children’s networks contain more edges from Bifidobacterium and Escherichia. Hence, we proposed the HGT network constructions from the gut microbiota sequencing data. The HGT networks capture the host state and the response of microbiota to the environmental and host changes, and they are essential to understand the human microbiota.

中文翻译：

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了解人类肠道微生物群中的水平基因转移网络。

水平基因转移 (HGT) 是在物种之间转移遗传物质的过程。通过共享遗传物质，人类微生物群中的微生物形成了一个网络。该网络可以提供了解微生物群的见解。在这里，我们从肠道微生物群测序数据构建了 HGT 网络，并进行了网络分析以表征肠道微生物群的 HGT 网络。我们构建了 HGT 网络并对两个典型的肠道微生物群数据集进行网络分析，一个 283 个样本的母婴数据集和一个 148 个样本的纵向炎症性肠病 (IBD) 宏基因组数据集。结果表明（1）HGT网络是无标度的。（2）网络随着生命的早期阶段而扩展其复杂性、规模和边缘数量；并且在儿童中建立的微生物群与其母亲具有高度相似性（p 值 = 0.0138），支持微生物群从母亲到儿童的传播。(3) 群体拥有群体特定的网络边缘和网络社区，它们可以作为生物标志物。例如，IBD 患者群体拥有高度丰富的变形菌群落（p 值 = 0.0194）和放线菌群落（p 值 = 0.0316）；儿童拥有高度丰富的变形菌群落（p-value = 2.8785 $$e^{-5}$$）和放线菌（p-value = 0.0015），母亲拥有高度丰富的厚壁菌群落（p-value = 8.0091 $ $e^{-7}$$ )。IBD 患者网络在致病属中包含更多的 HGT 边缘，包括分枝杆菌属、萨特氏菌属和假单胞菌属。儿童网络包含更多来自双歧杆菌和大肠杆菌的边缘。因此，我们从肠道微生物群测序数据中提出了 HGT 网络结构。HGT 网络捕获宿主状态和微生物群对环境和宿主变化的响应，它们对于了解人类微生物群至关重要。