Comparing the Metagenomic Performance of Stools Collected from Custom Cards and 95% Ethanol in Epidemiologic Studies.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Stool cards have been used for microbiome assessment in epidemiologic studies.

Methods

We compared shotgun metagenomic sequencing from 32 participants who self-collected stool samples from the same bowel movement using a custom stool card versus a collection tube with 95% ethanol fixative in the Nurses' Health Study II. We evaluated the agreement between methods at both the whole-community and individual species levels. To contextualize the comparison for disease association studies, we assessed the performance of the two collection methods for differentiating colorectal cancer-associated taxa.

Results

Overall, metagenomes from cards and 95% ethanol were highly correlated within individuals. No difference was found in α diversity and only ∼1% of variation i

SUBMITTER: Kuntz TM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12316560 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature