A comparison of DNA/RNA extraction protocols for high-throughput sequencing of microbial communities.

ABSTRACT: One goal among microbial ecology researchers is to capture the maximum amount of information from all organisms in a sample. The recent COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the RNA virus SARS-CoV-2, has highlighted a gap in traditional DNA-based protocols, including the high-throughput methods we previously established as field standards. To enable simultaneous SARS-CoV-2 and microbial community profiling, we compare the relative performance of two total nucleic acid extraction protocols and our previously benchmarked protocol. We included a diverse panel of environmental and host-associated sample types, including body sites commonly swabbed for COVID-19 testing. Here we present results comparing the cost, processing time, DNA and RNA yield, microbial community composition, limit of detection, an

SUBMITTER: Shaffer JP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7668742 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature