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A communal catalogue reveals Earth's multiscale microbial diversity
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

A communal catalogue reveals Earth's multiscale microbial diversity

Luke R Thompson, Jon G Sanders, Daniel McDonald, Amnon Amir, Joshua Ladau, Kenneth J Locey, Robert J Prill, Anupriya Tripathi, Sean M Gibbons, Gail Ackermann, …
Nature (London), Vol.551(7681), pp.457-463
11/23/2017
DOI: 10.1038/nature24621
PMCID: PMC6192678
PMID: 29088705
url
https://doi.org/10.1038/nature24621View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Our growing awareness of the microbial world's importance and diversity contrasts starkly with our limited understanding of its fundamental structure. Despite recent advances in DNA sequencing, a lack of standardized protocols and common analytical frameworks impedes comparisons among studies, hindering the development of global inferences about microbial life on Earth. Here we present a meta-analysis of microbial community samples collected by hundreds of researchers for the Earth Microbiome Project. Coordinated protocols and new analytical methods, particularly the use of exact sequences instead of clustered operational taxonomic units, enable bacterial and archaeal ribosomal RNA gene sequences to be followed across multiple studies and allow us to explore patterns of diversity at an unprecedented scale. The result is both a reference database giving global context to DNA sequence data and a framework for incorporating data from future studies, fostering increasingly complete characterization of Earth's microbial diversity.
Animals Archaea - genetics Archaea - isolation & purification Bacteria - genetics Bacteria - isolation & purification Biodiversity Earth, Planet Ecology - methods Gene Dosage Geographic Mapping Humans Microbiota - genetics Plants - microbiology RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - analysis RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics

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