[S1-2] A distribution survey of environmental microbiome by single-cell genomics
Buruli ulcer, caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans is a skin Neglected Tropical Disease that is mainly encountered in West Africa. Around 5000 new cases are reported annually to the WHO. Despite its impact, the disease is not yet fully understood - including route of transmission. One of the biggest gaps in achieving this knowledge is due to unavailability of isolated bacteria. The ability to separate and culture individual bacteria species is critical for microbiological studies. Due to slow cell division rates, there are few reports of successful culture of Buruli ulcer-causing mycobacteria that are present in the environment. Clarification of the transmission around the circumstance may be important mission. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of bacterial infections, a method for a priori microbiome analysis that does not require separation and culture of bacteria is needed. By distinguishing every bacterium, single-cell analyses can yield comprehensive genetic information. Here we applied a high-throughput method for encapsulating single bacterium into individual droplets to perform novel diagnostics on clinical and environmental specimens. We have been developing an algorithm tool for analysis of composite genetic data, and investigated whether this method could be applied to clean and integrate genomic information derived from single cells encapsulated in droplets.