Divergence thresholds and divergent biodiversity estimates: can metabarcoding reliably describe zooplankton communities?

ABSTRACT: DNA metabarcoding is a promising method for describing communities and estimating biodiversity. This approach uses high-throughput sequencing of targeted markers to identify species in a complex sample. By convention, sequences are clustered at a predefined sequence divergence threshold (often 3%) into operational taxonomic units (OTUs) that serve as a proxy for species. However, variable levels of interspecific marker variation across taxonomic groups make clustering sequences from a phylogenetically diverse dataset into OTUs at a uniform threshold problematic. In this study, we use mock zooplankton communities to evaluate the accuracy of species richness estimates when following conventional protocols to cluster hypervariable sequences of the V4 region of the small subunit ribosomal RNA

SUBMITTER: Brown EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4461424 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature