AbstractThe application of amplicon sequencing in water research provides a rapid and sensitive technique for microbial community analysis in a variety of environments ranging from freshwater lakes to water and wastewater treatment plants. It has revolutionized our ability to study DNA collected from environmental samples by eliminating the challenges associated with lab cultivation and taxonomic identification. DNA sequencing data consist of discrete counts of sequence reads, the total number of which is the library size. Samples may have different library sizes and thus, a normalization technique is required to meaningfully compare them. The process of randomly subsampling sequences to a selected normalized library size from the sample library—rarefying—is one such normalization technique. However, rarefying has been criticized as a normalization technique because data can be omitted through the exclusion of either excess sequences or entire samples, depending on the rarefied library size selected. Although it has been suggested that rarefying should be avoided altogether, we propose that repeatedly rarefying enables (i) characterization of the variation introduced to diversity analyses by this random subsampling and (ii) selection of smaller library sizes where necessary to incorporate all samples in the analysis. Rarefying may be a statistically valid normalization technique, but researchers should evaluate their data to make appropriate decisions regarding library size selection and subsampling type. The impact of normalized library size selection and rarefying with or without replacement in diversity analyses were evaluated herein.Highlights▪ Amplicon sequencing technology for environmental water samples is reviewed▪ Sequencing data must be normalized to allow comparison in diversity analyses▪ Rarefying normalizes library sizes by subsampling from observed sequences▪ Criticisms of data loss through rarefying can be resolved by rarefying repeatedly▪ Rarefying repeatedly characterizes errors introduced by subsampling sequences
Microbial community analysis of the hypersaline water of the Dead Sea using high-throughput amplicon sequencing
