Short Read Lengths Recover Ecological Patterns in 16S rRNA Gene Amplicon Data.

ABSTRACT: 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding, the study of amplicon sequences of the 16S rRNA gene from mixed environmental samples, is an increasingly popular and accessible method for assessing bacterial communities across a wide range of environments. As metabarcoding sequence data archives continue to grow, data reuse will likely become an important source of novel insights into the ecology of microbes. While recent work has demonstrated the benefits of longer read lengths for the study of microbial communities from 16S rRNA gene segments, no studies have explored the use of shorter (< 200 bp) read lengths in the context of data reuse. Nevertheless, this information is essential to improve the reuse and comparability of metabarcoding data across existing datasets. This study reanalyzed nine 16S rRNA da

SUBMITTER: Jurburg SD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12225704 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature