Cited by 685Microbial Community Ecology and PhysiologyEnvironmental DNA in Biodiversity StudiesGenomics and Phylogenetic Studies

Strengths and Limitations of 16S rRNA Gene Amplicon Sequencing in Revealing Temporal Microbial Community Dynamics

Open access
Poretsky, Rachel, Rodriguez-R, Luis M., Luo, Chengwei, Tsementzi, Despina, Konstantinidis, Konstantinos T.·2014·PLoS ONE

Abstract

This study explored the short-term planktonic microbial community structure and resilience in Lake Lanier (GA, USA) while simultaneously evaluating the technical aspects of identifying taxa via 16S rRNA gene amplicon and metagenomic sequence data. 16S rRNA gene amplicons generated from four temporally discrete samples were sequenced with 454 GS-FLX-Ti yielding ∼40,000 rRNA gene sequences from each sample and representing ∼300 observed OTUs. Replicates obtained from the same biological sample clustered together but several biases were observed, linked to either the PCR or sequencing-preparation steps. In comparisons with companion whole-community shotgun metagenome datasets, the estimated number of OTUs at each timepoint was concordant, but 1.5 times and ∼10 times as many phyla and genera, respectively, were identified in the metagenomes. Our analyses showed that the 16S rRNA gene captures broad shifts in community diversity over time, but with limited resolution and lower sensitivity compared to metagenomic data. We also identified OTUs that showed marked shifts in abundance over four close timepoints separated by perturbations and tracked these taxa in the metagenome vs. 16S rRNA amplicon data. A strong summer storm had less of an effect on community composition than did seasonal mixing, which revealed a distinct succession of organisms. This study provides insights into freshwater microbial communities and advances the approaches for assessing community diversity and dynamics in situ.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1371/journal.pone.0093827

Cites

63 of 63 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Such hypervariable genes or regions permit identification of microbial community members but can be limited in their capacity to resolve phylogenetically related species or strains and do not provide information on functional gene content.

    “Such hypervariable genes or regions permit identification of microbial community members but can be limited in their capacity to resolve phylogenetically related species or strains and do not provide information on functional gene content of the microbial members present.72”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Poretsky, R., Rodriguez-R, L. M., Luo, C., Tsementzi, D., & Konstantinidis, K. T.
Affiliations
Georgia Institute of Technology (US)
Corresponding author
Poretsky, Rachel
Venue
PLoS ONE
Published
2014-04-08
Volume
9
Issue
4
Pages
e93827
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2019163239
Cited by
684
References
63
Citations by year
2026: 50 · 2025: 70 · 2024: 45 · 2023: 78 · 2022: 71 · 2021: 83 · 2020: 69 · 2019: 67 · 2018: 62 · 2017: 37 · 2016: 29 · 2015: 20 · 2014: 2 · 2012: 1
FWCI
25.43
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation (1241046)
  • U.S. Department of Energy (DESC0006662)
  • Emory University
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Environmental DNA in Biodiversity Studies
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies
Keywords
16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, metagenomics, planktonic microbial communities, freshwater microbial communities, Lake Lanier, community resilience, sequencing bias, PCR bias, seasonal mixing, storm disturbance, microbial succession, community diversity
MeSH terms
Bacteria, Fresh Water, Plankton, RNA, Ribosomal, 16S, Metagenome, Metagenomics

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review