organism: freshwater metagenome
description: We sampled four environmentally-distinct surface water sites: two near-shore (littoral) stations (Lebanon Pool and Soldier Creek) and two off-shore (pelagic) stations (Red River and Buncombe Creek). We then sequenced 16S rRNA genes of bacterial assemblages using high-throughput sequencing (454/Roche Life Sciences GS-FLX Genome Sequencer). Sequence data were analyzed using mothur, an open-source, platform-independent software package for describing and comparing microbial communities. While no formal taxonomic definitions exist for bacteria based on sequence similarity, operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were defined at 3, 7, and 15% sequence dissimilarity cutoff values as rough approximations of species, genus, and family (18, 26, 27, but see 28) as generated using SILVA.