Details Matter: Designing Skin Microbiome Studies.
The use of genomic sequencing to investigate microbes has expanded, yet it has also raised questions regarding optimal approaches to studying the skin microbiome. Meisel et al. show that while whole genome shotgun metagenomic sequences were most similar to expected microbial profiles, sequencing of the hypervariable regions V1-V3 of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene had greater accuracy than sequencing of the hypervariable region V4 in determining genus and species level classifications of prominent skin bacteria.
Dermatology Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA. Electronic address: konghe@mail.nih.gov.
Heidi H
HH
Kong
D000818:Animals; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D006801:Humans; D054892:Metagenome / Q000235:genetics; D056186:Metagenomics / Q000379:methods*; D064307:Microbiota / Q000235:genetics*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000379:methods; D012867:Skin / Q000382:microbiology*