Highly Reproducible 16S Sequencing Facilitates Measurement of Host Genetic Influences on the Stickleback Gut Microbiome

• DOI: 10.1128/msystems.00331-19
• Publication Date: 2019-08-12T12:27:18Z
• Authors: Clayton M. Small; Mark Currey; Emily A. Beck; Susan Bassham; William A. Cresko
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 0303 health sciences; fish model; host-microbe systems; Methods and Protocols; microbial ecology; DNA isolation; Microbiology; QR1-502; 03 medical and health sciences; repeatability; reproducibility

Our findings demonstrate the importance of appropriately quantifying biological and technical variance components when attempting to understand major influences on high-throughput microbiome data. Our focus was on understanding among-host (biological) variance in community metrics and its magnitude in relation to within-host (technical) variance, because meaningful comparisons among individuals are necessary in addressing major questions in host-microbe ecology and evolution, such as heritability of the microbiome. Our study design and insights should provide a useful example for others desiring to quantify microbiome variation at biological levels in the face of various technical factors in a variety of systems.