Xiaolin Hao, Ting Chen

Because of technological limitations, the primer and amplification biases in targeted sequencing of 16S rRNA genes have veiled the true microbial diversity underlying environmental samples. However, the protocol of metagenomic shotgun sequencing provides 16S rRNA gene fragment data with natural immunity against the biases raised during priming and thus the potential of uncovering the true structure of microbial community by giving more accurate predictions of operational taxonomic units (OTUs). Nonetheless, the lack of statistically rigorous comparison between 16S rRNA gene fragments and other data types makes it difficult to interpret previously reported results using 16S rRNA gene fragments. Therefore, in the present work, we established a standard analysis pipeline that would help confirm if the differences in the data are true or are just due to potential technical bias. This pipeline is built by using simulated data to find optimal mapping and OTU prediction methods. The comparison between simulated datasets revealed a relationship between 16S rRNA gene fragments and full-length 16S rRNA sequences that a 16S rRNA gene fragment having a length >150 bp provides the same accuracy as a full-length 16S rRNA sequence using our proposed pipeline, which could serve as a good starting point for experimental design and making the comparison between 16S rRNA gene fragment-based and targeted 16S rRNA sequencing-based surveys possible.