Comparing total RNA sequencing and metagenomics pipelines for multi-domain taxonomic profiling: implications for ecological assessments

Ecological assessments are necessary to evaluate the status of our deteriorating ecosystems, however, assessment methods traditionally omit most microbes because unicellular organisms challenging identify. This omission is not ideal, as might be better indicators for changes in environmental conditions than taxa used. DNA- and RNA-based techniques increasingly applied ecological overcome this challenge but require more testing optimization. In study, we compare metagenomics total RNA sequencing (total RNA-Seq) their taxonomic profiling performance microbial communities. We both on two sample sets, 1) a commercially available mock community consisting eight bacterial eukaryotic species, 2) display tank water sample. processed data using 1,532 bioinformatics pipelines evaluated each workflow, i.e., combination type (metagenomics or pipeline, terms accuracy precision. talk will showcase preliminary results highlight differences workflow performances. A recommended maximize communities also presented.