Tick-borne diseases, due to a diversity of bacterial pathogens, represent a significant and increasing public health threat throughout the Northern Hemisphere. A high-throughput 16S V1-V2 rRNA gene-based metagenomics assay was developed and evaluated using >13,000 residual samples from patients suspected of having tick-borne illness and >1,000 controls. Taxonomic predictions for tick-borne bacteria were exceptionally accurate, as independently validated by secondary testing. Overall, 881 specimens were positive for bacterial tick-borne agents. Twelve tick-borne bacterial species were detected, including two novel pathogens, representing a 100% increase in the number of tick-borne bacteria identified compared to what was possible by initial PCR testing. In three blood specimens, two tick-borne bacteria were simultaneously detected. Seven bacteria, not known to be tick transmitted, were also confirmed to be unique to samples from persons suspected of having tick-borne illness. These results indicate that 16S V1-V2 metagenomics can greatly simplify diagnosis and accelerate the discovery of bacterial tick-borne pathogens.

中文翻译：

---

靶向宏基因组学，用于临床检测和发现细菌discovery传病原体。

由于细菌病原体的多样性，由ick传播的疾病在整个北半球构成了重大且日益增加的公共卫生威胁。开发了一种高通量的基于16S V1-V2 rRNA基因的宏基因组学测定法，并使用了来自怀疑患有tick传播疾病的患者的> 13,000残留样品和> 1,000的对照进行评估。tick传细菌的分类学预测非常准确，已通过二次测试独立验证。总体上，有881个标本为细菌性tick传播媒介阳性。检测到12种tick传播细菌，包括两种新的病原体，与最初的PCR测试相比，代表的identified传播细菌数量增加了100％。在三个血液样本中，同时检测到两个tick传细菌。还证实了七种细菌，它们不知道是否由tick传播，它们也被认为是怀疑患有tick传播疾病的人的样本所特有的。这些结果表明16S V1-V2宏基因组学可以大大简化诊断，并加快细菌tick传病原体的发现。