Using standard microbiome reference groups to simplify beta-diversity analyses and facilitate independent validation.

ABSTRACT:

Motivation

Comparisons of microbiome communities across populations are often based on pairwise distance measures (beta-diversity). Standard analyses (principal coordinate plots, permutation tests, kernel methods) require access to primary data if another investigator wants to add or compare independent data. We propose using standard reference measurements to simplify microbiome beta-diversity analyses, to make them more transparent, and to facilitate independent validation and comparisons across studies.

Results

Using stool and nasal reference sets from the Human Microbiome Project (HMP), we computed mean distances (actually Bray-Curtis or Pearson correlation dissimilarities) to each reference set for each new sample. Thus, each new sample has two mean distances that can b

SUBMITTER: Maziarz M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6157088 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature