Exploration of microbial diversity based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis

Abstract:

Surveying diversity of microbial communities has great significance for exploiting microbial resource, exploring functions of microbial communities, elucidating relations between microbial communities and their habitat. With the proposal of the concept of "metagenomics" and the development of sequencing technology, 16S rRNA gene profiling has been widely applied in the survey of microbial diversity. This review introduces four important stages of 16S rRNA gene sequencing analysis, including selection of sequencing platforms and hypervariable regions, sequencing data preprocess and methods of diversity analysis. Furthermore, the current challenges and future prospects to 16S rRNA gene profiling are discussed. This review aims to provide a reference for microbial diversity researches.