Bacterial and eukaryotic small-subunit amplicon data do not provide a quantitative picture of microbial communities, but they are reliable in the context of ecological interpretations

Abstract

High-throughput sequencing (HTS) of gene amplicons is a preferred method of assessing microbial community composition, because it rapidly provides information from a large number of samples at high taxonomic resolution and low costs. However, mock community studies show that HTS data poorly reflect the actual relative abundances of individual phylotypes, casting doubt on the reliability of subsequent statistical analysis and data interpretation. We investigated how accurately HTS data reflect the variability of bacterial and eukaryoti Show more