Article
Amplification by PCR artificially reduces the proportion of the rare biosphere in microbial communities.
PloS one - 1 Jan 2012
Gonzalez Juan M, Portillo Maria C, Belda-Ferre Pedro, Mira Alex
Abstract excerpt
The microbial world has been shown to hold an unimaginable diversity. The use of rRNA genes and PCR amplification to assess microbial community structure and diversity present biases that need to be analyzed in order to understand the risks involved in those estimates. Herein, we show that PCR amplification of specific sequence targets within a community depends on the fractions that those sequences represent to...
Topics
- Bacteria
- Base Sequence
- Biodiversity
- DNA, Bacterial
- Genes, Bacterial
- Genetic Variation
- Humans
- Metagenome
- Mouth
- Polymerase Chain Reaction
- RNA, Ribosomal, 16S