16S rRNA amplicon sequencing of flea metagenome: Ctenocephalides connatus collected from Mastomys coucha in Manyeleti Game Reserve, Mpumalanga
DNA was extracted from flea specimens collected from rodent hosts in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. The full-length 16S rRNA gene was amplified using universal primers, and amplicons were prepared as SMRTbell libraries following PacBio protocols. Sequencing was performed on a PacBio Sequel II platform using Circular Consensus Sequencing (CCS) to generate HiFi reads. Reads were processed with DADA2 to infer amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) for microbial community analysis.