StableMate meta-analysis of metagenomic data reveals key species predictive of CRC across eight independent study cohorts. (A) StableMate variable selection plot of the pooled analysis. The majority of highly predictive species were found stable, and none was identified as cohort-specific. (B) PCoA with samples coloured by either disease status (left column) or cohorts (right column). (B1) Using all 313 species shared by all cohorts, regardless of their stability; (B2) using only the 23 stable species selected by StableMate. PERMANOVA R2 statistic on the first two principal coordinates is shown in the top left corner of each panel. The coloured bar at the bottom shows the composition of the total variance. When considering all 313 species, the cohort effect is much larger than the disease effect (almost negligible); with 23 species identified as stable, the cohort effect is still present but smaller than the disease effect. (C) StableMate variable selection plot of the Austria cohort-specific analysis (one of the eight cohort-specific analyses). Prevotella copri was found to be an Austria-specific species for predicting CRC, since it has a high prediction score but a low stability score. Such species are interesting for studying cohort-specific effects that may confound the CRC diagnosis.
