skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: DNA extraction protocols cause differences in 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing efficiency but not in community profile composition or structure

Journal Article · · MicrobiologyOpen
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/mbo3.216· OSTI ID:1212882

The recent development of methods applying next-generation sequencing to microbial community characterization has led to the proliferation of these studies in a wide variety of sample types. Yet, variation in the physical properties of environmental samples demands that optimal DNA extraction techniques be explored for each new environment. The microbiota associated with many species of insects offer an extraction challenge as they are frequently surrounded by an armored exoskeleton, inhibiting disruption of the tissues within. In this study, we examine the efficacy of several commonly used protocols for extracting bacterial DNA from ants. While bacterial community composition recovered using Illumina 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing was not detectably biased by any method, the quantity of bacterial DNA varied drastically, reducing the number of samples that could be amplified and sequenced. These results indicate that the concentration necessary for dependable sequencing is around 10,000 copies of target DNA per microliter. Exoskeletal pulverization and tissue digestion increased the reliability of extractions, suggesting that these steps should be included in any study of insect-associated microorganisms that relies on obtaining microbial DNA from intact body segments. Although laboratory and analysis techniques should be standardized across diverse sample types as much as possible, minimal modifications such as these will increase the number of environments in which bacterial communities can be successfully studied.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357; NSF1050243; NSF1311417
OSTI ID:
1212882
Journal Information:
MicrobiologyOpen, Vol. 3, Issue 6; ISSN 2045-8827
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 67 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (50)

Comparative Analysis of Human Gut Microbiota by Barcoded Pyrosequencing journal July 2008
Metagenomic and metaproteomic insights into bacterial communities in leaf-cutter ant fungus gardens journal March 2012
Generation of Multimillion-Sequence 16S rRNA Gene Libraries from Complex Microbial Communities by Assembling Paired-End Illumina Reads journal April 2011
PyNAST: a flexible tool for aligning sequences to a template alignment journal November 2009
QIIME allows analysis of high-throughput community sequencing data journal April 2010
Moving pictures of the human microbiome journal January 2011
Ultra-high-throughput microbial community analysis on the Illumina HiSeq and MiSeq platforms journal March 2012
DNA extraction method affects microbial community profiles from soils and sediment journal October 2007
Do diet and taxonomy influence insect gut bacterial communities? journal September 2012
Bacterial Community Variation in Human Body Habitats Across Space and Time journal November 2009
Greengenes, a Chimera-Checked 16S rRNA Gene Database and Workbench Compatible with ARB journal July 2006
The gut microbiota of insects – diversity in structure and function journal September 2013
Assessment of Bias Associated with Incomplete Extraction of Microbial DNA from Soil journal June 2009
Evidence for a persistent microbial seed bank throughout the global ocean journal March 2013
The Earth Microbiome Project: Meeting report of the “1st EMP meeting on sample selection and acquisition” at Argonne National Laboratory October 6th 2010. journal January 2010
Meeting Report: The Terabase Metagenomics Workshop and the Vision of an Earth Microbiome Project journal January 2010
The importance of metagenomic surveys to microbial ecology: or why Darwin would have been a metagenomic scientist journal June 2011
Defining seasonal marine microbial community dynamics journal August 2011
Deep-Sea Oil Plume Enriches Indigenous Oil-Degrading Bacteria journal August 2010
Correlates of gut community composition across an ant species ( Cephalotes varians ) elucidate causes and consequences of symbiotic variability journal December 2013
The bacterial communities in plant phloem-sap-feeding insects journal January 2014
A Cross-Taxon Analysis of Insect-Associated Bacterial Diversity journal April 2013
Surveying the Microbiome of Ants: Comparing 454 Pyrosequencing with Traditional Methods To Uncover Bacterial Diversity journal November 2012
Unlocking the potential of metagenomics through replicated experimental design journal June 2012
Supervised classification of human microbiota journal March 2011
Socially transmitted gut microbiota protect bumble bees against an intestinal parasite journal November 2011
Ecological effects on gut bacterial communities in wild bumblebee colonies journal June 2012
Diversity and evolutionary patterns of bacterial gut associates of corbiculate bees journal January 2013
Development of a Dual-Index Sequencing Strategy and Curation Pipeline for Analyzing Amplicon Sequence Data on the MiSeq Illumina Sequencing Platform journal June 2013
Effect of storage conditions on the assessment of bacterial community structure in soil and human-associated samples: Influence of short-term storage conditions on microbiota journal March 2010
Impact of DNA extraction method on bacterial community composition measured by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis journal October 2004
Short pyrosequencing reads suffice for accurate microbial community analysis journal August 2007
The Crematogaster (Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Myrmicinae) of Costa Rica journal March 2003
DNA preservation: a test of commonly used preservatives for insects journal January 2013
Diet Drives Convergence in Gut Microbiome Functions Across Mammalian Phylogeny and Within Humans journal May 2011
Investigating the Impact of Storage Conditions on Microbial Community Composition in Soil Samples journal July 2013
Bacterial gut symbionts are tightly linked with the evolution of herbivory in ants journal November 2009
Stability and phylogenetic correlation in gut microbiota: lessons from ants and apes journal January 2014
Genomic variation landscape of the human gut microbiome journal December 2012
Introducing mothur: Open-Source, Platform-Independent, Community-Supported Software for Describing and Comparing Microbial Communities journal October 2009
Reducing the Effects of PCR Amplification and Sequencing Artifacts on 16S rRNA-Based Studies journal December 2011
An Insect Herbivore Microbiome with High Plant Biomass-Degrading Capacity journal September 2010
The NIH Human Microbiome Project journal October 2009
The Human Microbiome Project journal October 2007
Comparison of DNA Extraction Methods for Microbial Community Profiling with an Application to Pediatric Bronchoalveolar Lavage Samples journal April 2012
Linking Long-Term Dietary Patterns with Gut Microbial Enterotypes journal September 2011
Microbial Dysbiosis During Simian Immunodeficiency Virus Infection is Partially Reverted with Combination Anti-retroviral Therapy journal April 2020
Generation of Multimillion-Sequence 16S rRNA Gene Libraries from Complex Microbial Communities by Assembling Paired-End Illumina Reads journal July 2011
Establishment of Characteristic Gut Bacteria during Development of the Honeybee Worker journal February 2012
Crematogaster text January 2003

Cited By (36)

Influence of Host Plant on Thaumetopoea pityocampa Gut Bacterial Community journal July 2017
Comparison of two bacterial DNA extraction methods from non-polluted and polluted soils journal July 2017
Establishing microbial composition measurement standards with reference frames journal June 2019
Diversity and Persistence of the Gut Microbiome of the Giant Neotropical Bullet Ant journal June 2017
Dramatic Differences in Gut Bacterial Densities Correlate with Diet and Habitat in Rainforest Ants journal July 2017
Social behaviour in bees influences the abundance of Sodalis (Enterobacteriaceae) symbionts journal July 2018
Community analysis of microbial sharing and specialization in a Costa Rican ant–plant–hemipteran symbiosis journal March 2017
Fungal community assembly in soils and roots under plant invasion and nitrogen deposition journal September 2018
The role of tissue-specific microbiota in initial establishment success of Pacific oysters: Microbiota and oyster establishment journal January 2016
Assessment of a 16S rRNA amplicon Illumina sequencing procedure for studying the microbiome of a symbiont-rich aphid genus journal November 2015
Comparative analysis of DNA extraction methods to study the body surface microbiota of insects: A case study with ant cuticular bacteria journal June 2017
Optimal extraction methods for the simultaneous analysis of DNA from diverse organisms and sample types journal February 2018
A common garden experiment with Porphyra umbilicalis (Rhodophyta) evaluates methods to study spatial differences in the macroalgal microbiome journal August 2018
Gut microbiota of dung beetles correspond to dietary specializations of adults and larvae journal November 2016
Dietary specialization in mutualistic acacia-ants affects relative abundance but not identity of host-associated bacteria journal August 2018
Effects of Organic Amendments on Microbiota Associated with the Culex nigripalpus Mosquito Vector of the Saint Louis Encephalitis and West Nile Viruses journal February 2017
Reptile-associated Borrelia species in the goanna tick (Bothriocroton undatum) from Sydney, Australia journal December 2017
Denitrification potential of the eastern oyster microbiome using a 16S rRNA gene based metabolic inference approach journal September 2017
Abundance and Diversity of Hydrogenotrophic Microorganisms in the Infant Gut before the Weaning Period Assessed by Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis and Quantitative PCR journal June 2017
Characteristics of Microbial Communities of Pachygrontha antennata (Hemiptera: Pachygronthidae) in Relation to Habitat Variables journal November 2019
High-Resolution Profiling of Gut Bacterial Communities in an Invasive Beetle using PacBio SMRT Sequencing System journal August 2019
Evidence-based recommendations on storing and handling specimens for analyses of insect microbiota journal January 2015
Fungal community assembly in soils and roots under plant invasion and nitrogen deposition journal August 2019
Evaluation of DNA extraction kits and phylogenetic diversity of the porcine gastrointestinal tract based on Illumina sequencing of two hypervariable regions journal November 2015
Quantifying the biases in metagenome mining for realistic assessment of microbial ecology of naturally fermented foods journal September 2016
Social behavior in bees influences the abundance of Sodalis (Enterobacteriaceae) symbionts preprint September 2017
Linking Spatial Structure and Community-Level Biotic Interactions through Cooccurrence and Time Series Modeling of the Human Intestinal Microbiota journal October 2017
High Doses of Halotolerant Gut-IndigenousLactobacillus plantarumReduce Cultivable Lactobacilli in Newborn Calves without Increasing Its Species Abundance journal January 2017
Toward a microbial Neolithic revolution in buildings journal March 2016
Molecular Signatures of Nicotinoid-Pathogen Synergy in the Termite Gut journal April 2015
Evaluating DNA Extraction Methods for Community Profiling of Pig Hindgut Microbial Community journal November 2015
Species-specific signatures of the microbiome from Camponotus and Colobopsis ants across developmental stages journal November 2017
A Comparison of Homogenization vs. Enzymatic Lysis for Microbiome Profiling in Clinical Endoscopic Biopsy Tissue Samples journal January 2019
The impact of freeze-drying infant fecal samples on measures of their bacterial community profiles and milk-derived oligosaccharide content journal January 2016
Biases during DNA extraction affect characterization of the microbiota associated with larvae of the Pacific white shrimp,Litopenaeus vannamei journal July 2018
Influence of host phylogeny, geographical location and seed harvesting diet on the bacterial community of globally distributed Pheidole ants journal February 2020