Analysing Microbial Community Composition through Amplicon Sequencing: From Sampling to Hypothesis Testing.

ABSTRACT: Microbial ecology as a scientific field is fundamentally driven by technological advance. The past decade's revolution in DNA sequencing cost and throughput has made it possible for most research groups to map microbial community composition in environments of interest. However, the computational and statistical methodology required to analyse this kind of data is often not part of the biologist training. In this review, we give a historical perspective on the use of sequencing data in microbial ecology and restate the current need for this method; but also highlight the major caveats with standard practices for handling these data, from sample collection and library preparation to statistical analysis. Further, we outline the main new analytical tools that have been developed in the past

SUBMITTER: Hugerth LW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5591341 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature