Metagenomics: read length matters.

ABSTRACT: Obtaining an unbiased view of the phylogenetic composition and functional diversity within a microbial community is one central objective of metagenomic analysis. New technologies, such as 454 pyrosequencing, have dramatically reduced sequencing costs, to a level where metagenomic analysis may become a viable alternative to more-focused assessments of the phylogenetic (e.g., 16S rRNA genes) and functional diversity of microbial communities. To determine whether the short (approximately 100 to 200 bp) sequence reads obtained from pyrosequencing are appropriate for the phylogenetic and functional characterization of microbial communities, the results of BLAST and COG analyses were compared for long (approximately 750 bp) and randomly derived short reads from each of two microbial and one vir

SUBMITTER: Wommack KE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2258652 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature