title: 16S sequencing of fecal microbiota from rats treated with artifical sweeteners (AceK, saccharin, and stevia)
design: Total DNA was extracted using Mo-Bio (now Qiagen) PowerFecal kit. Sample libraries were prepared and analyzed by barcoded amplicon sequencing. In brief, the purified DNA was amplified on the V4 region of the 16S rRNA genes via PCR using the following primers: F319 (5-ACTCCTACGGGAGGCAGCAGT-3) and R806 (5-GGACTACNVGGGTWTCTAAT-3).  High-throughput sequencing was performed with Illumina MiSeq paired end 250-bp run.