Consistent microbial insights across sequencing methods in soil studies: the role of reference taxonomies.

ABSTRACT: Microbes play an important role in soil functioning, underpinning food production systems and delivering an array of essential ecosystem services. To elucidate how these microbes relate to ecosystem functions, accurate identification and classification of soil microorganisms are important. We evaluated the comparability of shotgun and amplicon sequencing approaches by profiling soil microbiota from 131 diverse temperate grassland soils across Ireland. We assessed method comparability in terms of (i) detection and classification of the most abundant phyla, (ii) their capacity to differentiate samples based on their microbial community, and (iii) their capacity to link microbial communities to measured nitrogen cycle functions. Our findings reveal that both methods offer moderately similar o

SUBMITTER: Edwin NR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12282176 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature