title: Choice of molecular barcode will affect species prevalence but not bacterial community composition.
abstract: The rapid advancement of next generation sequencing protocols in recent years has led to the diversification in the methods used to study microbial communities; however, how comparable the data generated from these different methods are, remains unclear. In this study we compared the taxonomic composition and seasonal dynamics of the bacterial community determined by two distinct 16s amplicon sequencing protocols: sequencing of the V6 region of the 16s rRNA gene using 454 pyrosequencing vs the V4 region of the 16s rRNA gene using the Illumina Hiseq 2500 platform. Significant differences between relative abundances at all taxonomic levels were observed; however, their seasonal dynamics between phyla were largely consistent between methods. This study highlights that care must be taken when comparing datasets generated from different methods.
authors.affiliation: Marine Biological Association, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, UK; Department of Ecology and Genetics/Limnology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lebret
authors.affiliation: Marine Biological Association, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, UK.
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schroeder
authors.affiliation: Marine Biological Association, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, UK.
authors.forename: Cecilia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Balestreri
authors.affiliation: Marine Biological Association, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, UK.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Highfield
authors.affiliation: Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, The Hoe, Plymouth, UK.
authors.forename: Denise
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cummings
authors.affiliation: Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, The Hoe, Plymouth, UK.
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Smyth
authors.affiliation: Marine Biological Association, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, UK. Electronic address: dsch@mba.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Declan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schroeder
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D044822:Biodiversity; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods*; D054892:Metagenome; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D012621:Seasons; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA
chemical_list: D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
keywords: 16S; Illumina; Marine bacterial community; Pyrosequencing