Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35701436›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2022

The human "contaminome": bacterial, viral, and computational contamination in whole genome sequences from 1000 families.

Brianna Chrisman, Chloe He, Jae-Yoon Jung, Nate Stockham, Kelley Paskov, Peter Washington, Dennis P Wall

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
43citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

43 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Observational
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Review
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. The multi-kingdom cancer microbiome.Nature microbiology · 2025
    Review
  15. Targeted decontamination of sequencing data with CLEAN.NAR genomics and bioinformatics · 2025
    Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Gut and Joint Microbiomes: Implications in Osteoarthritis.Rheumatic diseases clinics of North America · 2025
    Review
  19. Review
  20. Decontamination of DNA sequences from a Streptomyces genome for optimal genome mining.Brazilian journal of microbiology : [publication of the Brazilian Society for Microbiology] · 2025
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Brianna ChrismanDepartment of Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford, USA. briannac@stanford.edu.
Chloe HeDepartment of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University, Stanford, USA.
Jae-Yoon JungDepartment of Pediatrics (Systems Medicine), Stanford University, Stanford, USA.
Nate StockhamDepartment of Neuroscience, Stanford University, Stanford, USA.
Kelley PaskovDepartment of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University, Stanford, USA.
Peter WashingtonDepartment of Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford, USA.
Dennis P WallDepartment of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University, Stanford, USA. dpwall@stanford.edu.

Funding

SUPPLEMENT TO RUSH ALZHEIMERS DISEASE CENTER COREP30AG010161 · NIA · RUSH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER · PI BENNETT, DAVID ALAN · 1991 to 2020
$49.1M
EPIDEMIOLOGY OF NEURAL RESERVE AND NEUROBIOLOGY IN AGINGR01AG017917 · NIA · RUSH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER · PI BENNETT, DAVID ALAN · 2001 to 2023
$43.3M
Multi-omic network-directed proteoform discovery, dissection and functional validation to prioritize novel AD therapeutic targetsU01AG061356 · NIA · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · PI BENNETT, DAVID ALAN, DE JAGER, PHILIP L · 2018 to 2022
$13.7M
Genomewide Search--Autism Susceptibility Loci-supplementR01MH064547 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · PI GESCHWIND, DANIEL H · 2002 to 2006
$9.6M
Center for Genomic and Phenomic Studies in AutismU24MH081810 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · PI LAJONCHERE, CLARA M · 2007 to 2011
$8.3M
Neuropeptidergic Regulation of Zebrafish SleepR01NS070911 · NINDS · CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · PI PROBER, DAVID AARON · 2011 to 2020
$3.5M
Role of Prokineticin 2 in Regulating Sleep in ZebrafishR01NS095824 · NINDS · CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · PI PROBER, DAVID AARON · 2017 to 2021
$1.8M
Regulation of Zebrafish Sleep by Neuromedin UR01NS101158 · NINDS · CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · PI PROBER, DAVID AARON · 2017 to 2020
$1.4M
Circadian Regulation of Zebrafish Sleep by MelatoninR01NS101665 · NINDS · CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · PI PROBER, DAVID AARON · 2017 to 2020
$1.4M
High Capacity Storage System for Computational BiologyS10OD011939 · OD · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · PI WOODS, ROGER P · 2012 to 2012
$598k
NIA NIH HHS P30 AG010161NIA NIH HHS R01 AG017917NIA NIH HHS U01 AG061356NIH HHS S10 OD011939NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH064547NIMH NIH HHS U24 MH081810NINDS NIH HHS R01 NS070911NINDS NIH HHS R01 NS095824NINDS NIH HHS R01 NS101158NINDS NIH HHS R01 NS101665
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The unmapped readspace of whole genome sequencing data tends to be large but is often ignored. We posit that it contains valuable signals of both human infection and contamination. Using unmapped and poorly aligned reads from whole genome sequences (WGS) of over 1000 families and nearly 5000 individuals, we present insights into common viral, bacterial, and computational contamination that plague whole genome sequencing studies. We present several notable results: (1) In addition to known contaminants such as Epstein-Barr virus and phiX, sequences from whole blood and lymphocyte cell lines contain many other contaminants, likely originating from storage, prep, and sequencing pipelines. (2) Sequencing plate and biological sample source of a sample strongly influence contamination profile. And, (3) Y-chromosome fragments not on the human reference genome commonly mismap to bacterial reference genomes. Both experiment-derived and computational contamination is prominent in next-generation sequencing data. Such contamination can compromise results from WGS as well as metagenomics studies, and standard protocols for identifying and removing contamination should be developed to ensure the fidelity of sequencing-based studies.

Indexed as

BacteriophagesEpstein-Barr Virus InfectionsComputational BiologyGenome, BacterialGenome, HumanGenome, ViralHerpesvirus 4, HumanHigh-Throughput Nucleotide SequencingHumansWhole Genome Sequencing

Identifiers

PMID35701436
PMCPMC9198055

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.