Effects of the long-term storage of human fecal microbiota samples collected in RNAlater.

ABSTRACT: The adequate storage of fecal samples from clinical trials is crucial if analyses are to be performed later and in long-term studies. However, it is unknown whether the composition of the microbiota is preserved during long-term stool storage (>1 year). We therefore evaluated the influence of long-term storage on the microbiota composition of human stool samples collected in RNAlater and stored for approximately five years at -80 °C. We compared storage effects on stool samples from 24 subjects with the effects of technical variation due to different sequencing runs and biological variation (intra- and inter-subject), in another 101 subjects, based on alpha-diversity, beta-diversity and taxonomic composition. We also evaluated the impact of initial alpha-diversity and fecal microbiota comp

SUBMITTER: Tap J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6345939 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature