A Novel Analysis Method for Paired-Sample Microbial Ecology Experiments.

ABSTRACT: Many microbial ecology experiments use sequencing data to measure a community's response to an experimental treatment. In a common experimental design, two units, one control and one experimental, are sampled before and after the treatment is applied to the experimental unit. The four resulting samples contain information about the dynamics of organisms that respond to the treatment, but there are no analytical methods designed to extract exactly this type of information from this configuration of samples. Here we present an analytical method specifically designed to visualize and generate hypotheses about microbial community dynamics in experiments that have paired samples and few or no replicates. The method is based on the Poisson lognormal distribution, long studied in macroecology, wh

SUBMITTER: Olesen SW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4859510 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature