title: Tiny microbes, enormous impacts: what matters in gut microbiome studies?
abstract: Many factors affect the microbiomes of humans, mice, and other mammals, but substantial challenges remain in determining which of these factors are of practical importance. Considering the relative effect sizes of both biological and technical covariates can help improve study design and the quality of biological conclusions. Care must be taken to avoid technical bias that can lead to incorrect biological conclusions. The presentation of quantitative effect sizes in addition to P values will improve our ability to perform meta-analysis and to evaluate potentially relevant biological effects. A better consideration of effect size and statistical power will lead to more robust biological conclusions in microbiome studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Justine
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Debelius
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.|Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
authors.forename: Se Jin
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Yoshiki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Vazquez-Baeza
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Zhenjiang Zech
authors.initials: ZZ
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA. robknight@ucsd.edu.|Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA. robknight@ucsd.edu.
authors.forename: Rob
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0975-9019
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Knight
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D000069196:Gastrointestinal Microbiome / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D012107:Research Design; D018401:Sample Size