Analytic Microbiome / Methodology

Which technical steps in microbiome analysis influence the microbiome composition?

Sample collection (1), preservation (2), storage (3, 4, 5) the sequencing platform (6), and the concentration of the extracted DNA (7) influence the microbiome composition.

What is the mechanical lysis step in microbiome analysis?

The mechanical lysis step is the extraction of DNA involving a bead-beating step, where the enzymatic breakdown of bacterial cells is supplemented or replaced by a mechanical process of shaking and breaking the cells with a series of small beads (8). Many studies have found that this mechanical lysis step can significantly increase the number of observed taxa and the relative abundance of gram-positive microbes (9, 10), including common gut-associated genera such as Bifidobacterium (11) …