Inconsistent Patterns of Microbial Diversity and Composition Between Highly Similar Sequencing Protocols: A Case Study With Reef-Building Corals.

ABSTRACT: 16S rRNA gene profiling (amplicon sequencing) is a popular technique for understanding host-associated and environmental microbial communities. Most protocols for sequencing amplicon libraries follow a standardized pipeline that can differ slightly depending on laboratory facility and user. Given that the same variable region of the 16S gene is targeted, it is generally accepted that sequencing output from differing protocols are comparable and this assumption underlies our ability to identify universal patterns in microbial dynamics through meta-analyses. However, discrepant results from a combined 16S rRNA gene dataset prepared by two labs whose protocols differed only in DNA polymerase and sequencing platform led us to scrutinize the outputs and challenge the idea of confidently combini

SUBMITTER: Epstein HE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8656265 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature