Fast and flexible analysis of linked microbiome data with mako

Mako is a software tool that converts microbiome data and networks into a graph database and visualizes query results, thus allowing users without programming knowledge to carry out network-based queries. Mako is accompanied by a database compiled from 60 microbiome studies that is easily extended with the user's own data. We illustrate mako's strengths by enumerating association partners linked to propionate production and comparing frequencies of different network motifs across habitat types.