FOMC Service Report

16S rRNA Gene V1V3 Amplicon Sequencing

Version V1.41

Version History

The Forsyth Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA
May 03, 2022

Project ID: FOMC4083_4106_4511_4917


I. Project Summary

Project FOMC4083_4106_4511_4917 services include NGS sequencing of the V1V3 region of the 16S rRNA amplicons from the samples. First and foremost, please download this report, as well as the sequence raw data from the download links provided below. These links will expire after 60 days. We cannot guarantee the availability of your data after 60 days.

Full Bioinformatics analysis service was requested. We provide many analyses, starting from the raw sequence quality and noise filtering, pair reads merging, as well as chimera filtering for the sequences, using the DADA2 denosing algorithm and pipeline.

We also provide many downstream analyses such as taxonomy assignment, alpha and beta diversity analyses, and differential abundance analysis.

For taxonomy assignment, most informative would be the taxonomy barplots. We provide an interactive barplots to show the relative abundance of microbes at different taxonomy levels (from Phylum to species) that you can choose.

If you specify which groups of samples you want to compare for differential abundance, we provide both ANCOM and LEfSe differential abundance analysis.

 

II. Workflow Checklist

1.Sample Received
2.Sample Quality Evaluated
3.Sample Prepared for Sequencing
4.Next-Gen Sequencing
5.Sequence Quality Check
6.Absolute Abundance
7.Report and Raw Sequence Data Available for Download
8.Bioinformatics Analysis - Reads Processing (DADA2 Quality Trimming, Denoising, Paired Reads Merging)
9.Bioinformatics Analysis - Reads Taxonomy Assignment
10.Bioinformatics Analysis - Alpha Diversity Analysis
11.Bioinformatics Analysis - Beta Diversity Analysis
12.Bioinformatics Analysis - Differential Abundance Analysis
13.Bioinformatics Analysis - Heatmap Profile
14.Bioinformatics Analysis - Network Association
 

III. NGS Sequencing

The samples were processed and analyzed with the ZymoBIOMICS® Service: Targeted Metagenomic Sequencing (Zymo Research, Irvine, CA).

DNA Extraction: If DNA extraction was performed, one of three different DNA extraction kits was used depending on the sample type and sample volume and were used according to the manufacturer’s instructions, unless otherwise stated. The kit used in this project is marked below:

ZymoBIOMICS® DNA Miniprep Kit (Zymo Research, Irvine, CA)
ZymoBIOMICS® DNA Microprep Kit (Zymo Research, Irvine, CA)
ZymoBIOMICS®-96 MagBead DNA Kit (Zymo Research, Irvine, CA)
N/A (DNA Extraction Not Performed)
Elution Volume: 50µL
Additional Notes: NA

Targeted Library Preparation: The DNA samples were prepared for targeted sequencing with the Quick-16S™ NGS Library Prep Kit (Zymo Research, Irvine, CA). These primers were custom designed by Zymo Research to provide the best coverage of the 16S gene while maintaining high sensitivity. The primer sets used in this project are marked below:

Quick-16S™ Primer Set V1-V2 (Zymo Research, Irvine, CA)
Quick-16S™ Primer Set V1-V3 (Zymo Research, Irvine, CA)
Quick-16S™ Primer Set V3-V4 (Zymo Research, Irvine, CA)
Quick-16S™ Primer Set V4 (Zymo Research, Irvine, CA)
Quick-16S™ Primer Set V6-V8 (Zymo Research, Irvine, CA)
Other: NA
Additional Notes: NA

The sequencing library was prepared using an innovative library preparation process in which PCR reactions were performed in real-time PCR machines to control cycles and therefore limit PCR chimera formation. The final PCR products were quantified with qPCR fluorescence readings and pooled together based on equal molarity. The final pooled library was cleaned up with the Select-a-Size DNA Clean & Concentrator™ (Zymo Research, Irvine, CA), then quantified with TapeStation® (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA) and Qubit® (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, WA).

Control Samples: The ZymoBIOMICS® Microbial Community Standard (Zymo Research, Irvine, CA) was used as a positive control for each DNA extraction, if performed. The ZymoBIOMICS® Microbial Community DNA Standard (Zymo Research, Irvine, CA) was used as a positive control for each targeted library preparation. Negative controls (i.e. blank extraction control, blank library preparation control) were included to assess the level of bioburden carried by the wet-lab process.

Sequencing: The final library was sequenced on Illumina® MiSeq™ with a V3 reagent kit (600 cycles). The sequencing was performed with 10% PhiX spike-in.

 

IV. Complete Report Download

The complete report of your project, including all links in this report, can be downloaded by clicking the link provided below. The downloaded file is a compressed ZIP file and once unzipped, open the file “REPORT.html” (may only shown as "REPORT" in your computer) by double clicking it. Your default web browser will open it and you will see the exact content of this report.

Please download and save the file to your computer storage device. The download link will expire after 60 days upon your receiving of this report.

Complete report download link:

To view the report, please follow the following steps:
1.Download the .zip file from the report link above.
2.Extract all the contents of the downloaded .zip file to your desktop.
3.Open the extracted folder and find the "REPORT.html" (may shown as only "REPORT").
4.Open (double-clicking) the REPORT.html file. Your default browser will open the top age of the complete report. Within the report, there are links to view all the analyses performed for the project.

 

V. Raw Sequence Data Download

The raw NGS sequence data is available for download with the link provided below. The data is a compressed ZIP file and can be unzipped to individual sequence files. Since this is a pair-end sequencing, each of your samples is represented by two sequence files, one for READ 1, with the file extension “*_R1.fastq.gz”, another READ 2, with the file extension “*_R1.fastq.gz”. The files are in FASTQ format and are compressed. FASTQ format is a text-based data format for storing both a biological sequence and its corresponding quality scores. Most sequence analysis software will be able to open them. The Sample IDs associated with the R1 and R2 fastq files are listed in the table below:

Sample IDOriginal Sample IDRead 1 File NameRead 2 File Name
S01zr4083_10V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4083_10V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S02zr4083_11V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4083_11V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S03zr4083_12V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4083_12V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S04zr4083_13V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4083_13V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S05zr4083_14V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4083_14V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S06zr4083_15V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4083_15V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S07zr4083_16V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4083_16V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S08zr4083_17V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4083_17V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S09zr4083_18V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4083_18V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S10zr4083_19V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4083_19V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S11zr4083_1V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4083_1V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S12zr4083_20V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4083_20V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S13zr4083_2V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4083_2V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S14zr4083_3V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4083_3V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S15zr4083_4V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4083_4V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S16zr4083_5V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4083_5V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S17zr4083_6V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4083_6V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S18zr4083_7V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4083_7V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S19zr4083_8V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4083_8V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S20zr4083_9V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4083_9V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S21zr4106_1V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4106_1V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S22zr4106_2V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4106_2V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S23zr4106_3V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4106_3V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S24zr4106_4V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4106_4V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S25zr4106_5V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4106_5V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S26zr4106_6V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4106_6V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S27zr4106_7V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4106_7V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S28zr4106_8V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4106_8V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S29zr4106_9V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4106_9V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S30zr4511_1V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4511_1V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S31zr4511_2V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4511_2V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S32zr4917_1V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4917_1V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S33zr4917_2V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4917_2V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S34zr4917_3V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4917_3V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S35zr4917_4V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4917_4V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S36zr4917_5V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4917_5V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S37zr4917_6V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4917_6V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S38zr4917_7V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4917_7V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S39zr4917_8V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4917_8V1V3_R2.fastq.gz
S40zr4917_9V1V3_R1.fastq.gzzr4917_9V1V3_R2.fastq.gz

Please download and save the file to your computer storage device. The download link will expire after 60 days upon your receiving of this report.

Raw sequence data download link:

 

VI. Analysis - DADA2 Read Processing

What is DADA2?

DADA2 is a software package that models and corrects Illumina-sequenced amplicon errors. DADA2 infers sample sequences exactly, without coarse-graining into OTUs, and resolves differences of as little as one nucleotide. DADA2 identified more real variants and output fewer spurious sequences than other methods.

DADA2’s advantage is that it uses more of the data. The DADA2 error model incorporates quality information, which is ignored by all other methods after filtering. The DADA2 error model incorporates quantitative abundances, whereas most other methods use abundance ranks if they use abundance at all. The DADA2 error model identifies the differences between sequences, eg. A->C, whereas other methods merely count the mismatches. DADA2 can parameterize its error model from the data itself, rather than relying on previous datasets that may or may not reflect the PCR and sequencing protocols used in your study.

DADA2 Publication: Callahan BJ, McMurdie PJ, Rosen MJ, Han AW, Johnson AJ, Holmes SP. DADA2: High-resolution sample inference from Illumina amplicon data. Nat Methods. 2016 Jul;13(7):581-3. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.3869. Epub 2016 May 23. PMID: 27214047; PMCID: PMC4927377.

DADA2 Software Package is available as an R package at : https://benjjneb.github.io/dada2/index.html

Analysis Procedures:

DADA2 pipeline includes several tools for read quality control, including quality filtering, trimming, denoising, pair merging and chimera filtering. Below are the major processing steps of DADA2:

Step 1. Read trimming based on sequence quality The quality of NGS Illumina sequences often decreases toward the end of the reads. DADA2 allows to trim off the poor quality read ends in order to improve the error model building and pair mergicing performance.

Step 2. Learn the Error Rates The DADA2 algorithm makes use of a parametric error model (err) and every amplicon dataset has a different set of error rates. The learnErrors method learns this error model from the data, by alternating estimation of the error rates and inference of sample composition until they converge on a jointly consistent solution. As in many machine-learning problems, the algorithm must begin with an initial guess, for which the maximum possible error rates in this data are used (the error rates if only the most abundant sequence is correct and all the rest are errors).

Step 3. Infer amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) based on the error model built in previous step. This step is also called sequence "denoising". The outcome of this step is a list of ASVs that are the equivalent of oligonucleotides.

Step 4. Merge paired reads. If the sequencing products are read pairs, DADA2 will merge the R1 and R2 ASVs into single sequences. Merging is performed by aligning the denoised forward reads with the reverse-complement of the corresponding denoised reverse reads, and then constructing the merged “contig” sequences. By default, merged sequences are only output if the forward and reverse reads overlap by at least 12 bases, and are identical to each other in the overlap region (but these conditions can be changed via function arguments).

Step 5. Remove chimera. The core dada method corrects substitution and indel errors, but chimeras remain. Fortunately, the accuracy of sequence variants after denoising makes identifying chimeric ASVs simpler than when dealing with fuzzy OTUs. Chimeric sequences are identified if they can be exactly reconstructed by combining a left-segment and a right-segment from two more abundant “parent” sequences. The frequency of chimeric sequences varies substantially from dataset to dataset, and depends on on factors including experimental procedures and sample complexity.

Results

1. Read Quality Plots NGS sequence analaysis starts with visualizing the quality of the sequencing. Below are the quality plots of the first sample for the R1 and R2 reads separately. In gray-scale is a heat map of the frequency of each quality score at each base position. The mean quality score at each position is shown by the green line, and the quartiles of the quality score distribution by the orange lines. The forward reads are usually of better quality. It is a common practice to trim the last few nucleotides to avoid less well-controlled errors that can arise there. The trimming affects the downstream steps including error model building, merging and chimera calling. FOMC uses an empirical approach to test many combinations of different trim length in order to achieve best final amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), see the next section “Optimal trim length for ASVs”.

Below is the link to a PDF file for viewing the quality plots for all samples:

2. Optimal trim length for ASVs The final number of merged and chimera-filtered ASVs depends on the quality filtering (hence trimming) in the very beginning of the DADA2 pipeline. In order to achieve highest number of ASVs, an empirical approach was used -

  1. Create a random subset of each sample consisting of 5,000 R1 and 5,000 R2 (to reduce computation time)
  2. Trim 10 bases at a time from the ends of both R1 and R2 up to 50 bases
  3. For each combination of trimmed length (e.g., 300x300, 300x290, 290x290 etc), the trimmed reads are subject to the entire DADA2 pipeline for chimera-filtered merged ASVs
  4. The combination with highest percentage of the input reads becoming final ASVs is selected for the complete set of data

Below is the result of such operation, showing ASV percentages of total reads for all trimming combinations (1st Column = R1 lengths in bases; 1st Row = R2 lengths in bases):

R1/R2281271261251241231
32127.49%38.42%44.65%45.96%48.37%44.33%
31128.27%40.15%45.87%47.53%46.13%29.09%
30128.67%40.16%45.97%43.27%29.04%11.99%
29128.55%39.56%41.81%27.38%12.60%11.43%
28129.99%36.71%26.01%11.57%11.72%9.20%
27125.82%23.96%10.94%10.56%9.03%3.48%

Based on the above result, the trim length combination of R1 = 321 bases and R2 = 241 bases (highlighted red above), was chosen for generating final ASVs for all sequences. This combination generated highest number of merged non-chimeric ASVs and was used for downstream analyses, if requested.

3. Error plots from learning the error rates After DADA2 building the error model for the set of data, it is always worthwhile, as a sanity check if nothing else, to visualize the estimated error rates. The error rates for each possible transition (A→C, A→G, …) are shown below. Points are the observed error rates for each consensus quality score. The black line shows the estimated error rates after convergence of the machine-learning algorithm. The red line shows the error rates expected under the nominal definition of the Q-score. The ideal result would be the estimated error rates (black line) are a good fit to the observed rates (points), and the error rates drop with increased quality as expected.

Forward Read R1 Error Plot


Reverse Read R2 Error Plot

The PDF version of these plots are available here:

 

4. DADA2 Result Summary The table below shows the summary of the DADA2 analysis, tracking paired read counts of each samples for all the steps during DADA2 denoising process - including end-trimming (filtered), denoising (denoisedF, denoisedF), pair merging (merged) and chimera removal (nonchim).

Sample IDF4083.S01F4083.S02F4083.S03F4083.S04F4083.S05F4083.S06F4083.S07F4083.S08F4083.S09F4083.S10F4083.S11F4083.S12F4083.S13F4083.S14F4083.S15F4083.S16F4083.S17F4083.S18F4083.S19F4083.S20F4106.S21F4106.S22F4106.S23F4106.S24F4106.S25F4106.S26F4106.S27F4106.S28F4106.S29F4511.S30F4511.S31F4917.S32F4917.S33F4917.S34F4917.S35F4917.S36F4917.S37F4917.S38F4917.S39F4917.S40Row SumPercentage
input25,39227,37825,42527,85123,14523,56524,94123,72824,74931,00019,73121,43828,10626,83124,79329,33020,89616,72226,28521,82130,57533,77036,60539,28739,55737,58035,73239,78829,89234,94249,46229,04923,81029,63435,04235,35422,39926,65225,19124,1711,151,619100.00%
filtered25,39227,37725,42127,84923,14223,56424,93723,72324,74630,99719,72821,43528,10326,82724,78729,32520,89216,72126,28021,82030,54033,73036,57139,24839,52337,53235,70039,74729,86234,86349,35029,02523,79729,61635,02935,34022,38126,63925,17824,1581,150,89599.94%
denoisedF23,89626,16824,45826,42421,89322,36923,67122,32423,41929,63818,43720,41926,91225,42623,55628,20419,46115,62624,93220,33029,35732,75635,46637,81638,30935,89433,88538,19528,75633,11047,99227,46421,82128,42833,56033,13521,22425,52323,86022,8201,096,93495.25%
denoisedR24,19425,94124,29326,32721,79922,33723,78122,57623,47129,35618,46220,33226,91225,15023,63528,04919,60615,83725,09820,73229,37332,49935,47337,73238,19035,86334,32938,04928,68131,26347,31727,54122,43528,51433,83633,79621,30425,48823,93322,9991,096,50395.21%
merged20,94022,59821,14922,15318,38418,45920,18719,53519,21125,35613,80817,53023,77120,38819,37924,41715,26212,54320,93416,71726,27129,30632,00532,60032,24330,15228,34432,12523,84225,30040,97522,96716,39324,16229,36228,41518,47520,78320,10918,534925,08480.33%
nonchim9,6579,6718,77011,53810,2109,0258,9879,0399,36211,2817,7638,07411,75010,82810,36910,2578,1896,9638,6648,66312,25514,33415,48217,77916,43317,29716,92318,38014,28414,36317,76412,78810,62513,73615,39816,30710,56013,54312,49812,351482,16041.87%

This table can be downloaded as an Excel table below:

 

5. DADA2 Amplicon Sequence Variants (ASVs). A total of 6902 unique merged and chimera-free ASV sequences were identified, and their corresponding read counts for each sample are available in the "ASV Read Count Table" with rows for the ASV sequences and columns for sample. This read count table can be used for microbial profile comparison among different samples and the sequences provided in the table can be used to taxonomy assignment.

 

The table can be downloaded from this link:

 
 

Sample Meta Information

#SampleIDPrevious IDsequence file nameGroup
F4083.S11F4083.01zr4083_1V1V3CF
F4083.S13F4083.02zr4083_2V1V3CF
F4083.S14F4083.03zr4083_3V1V3CF
F4083.S15F4083.04zr4083_4V1V3SECC
F4083.S16F4083.05zr4083_5V1V3CF
F4083.S17F4083.06zr4083_6V1V3SECC
F4083.S18F4083.07zr4083_7V1V3SECC
F4083.S19F4083.08zr4083_8V1V3SECC
F4083.S20F4083.09zr4083_9V1V3SECC
F4083.S01F4083.10zr4083_10V1V3SECC
F4083.S02F4083.11zr4083_11V1V3SECC
F4083.S03F4083.12zr4083_12V1V3CF
F4083.S04F4083.13zr4083_13V1V3SECC
F4083.S05F4083.14zr4083_14V1V3SECC
F4083.S06F4083.15zr4083_15V1V3SECC
F4083.S07F4083.16zr4083_16V1V3SECC
F4083.S08F4083.17zr4083_17V1V3SECC
F4083.S09F4083.18zr4083_18V1V3SECC
F4083.S10F4083.19zr4083_19V1V3SECC
F4083.S12F4083.20zr4083_20V1V3SECC
F4106.S21F4106.01zr4106_1V1V3SECC
F4106.S22F4106.02zr4106_2V1V3SECC
F4106.S23F4106.03zr4106_3V1V3SECC
F4106.S24F4106.04zr4106_4V1V3CF
F4106.S25F4106.05zr4106_5V1V3CF
F4106.S26F4106.06zr4106_6V1V3SECC
F4106.S27F4106.07zr4106_7V1V3CF
F4106.S28F4106.08zr4106_8V1V3SECC
F4106.S29F4106.09zr4106_9V1V3CF
F4511.S30F4511.01zr4511_1V1V3CF
F4511.S31F4511.02zr4511_2V1V3CF
F4917.S32F4917.01zr4917_1V1V3CF
F4917.S33F4917.02zr4917_2V1V3SECC
F4917.S34F4917.03zr4917_3V1V3SECC
F4917.S35F4917.04zr4917_4V1V3SECC
F4917.S36F4917.05zr4917_5V1V3SECC
F4917.S37F4917.06zr4917_6V1V3SECC
F4917.S38F4917.07zr4917_7V1V3CF
F4917.S39F4917.08zr4917_8V1V3CF
F4917.S40F4917.09zr4917_9V1V3CF
 
 

ASV Read Counts by Samples

#Sample IDRead Count
F4083.S186,963
F4083.S117,763
F4083.S128,074
F4083.S178,189
F4083.S208,663
F4083.S198,664
F4083.S038,770
F4083.S078,987
F4083.S069,025
F4083.S089,039
F4083.S099,362
F4083.S019,657
F4083.S029,671
F4083.S0510,210
F4083.S1610,257
F4083.S1510,369
F4917.S3710,560
F4917.S3310,625
F4083.S1410,828
F4083.S1011,281
F4083.S0411,538
F4083.S1311,750
F4106.S2112,255
F4917.S4012,351
F4917.S3912,498
F4917.S3212,788
F4917.S3813,543
F4917.S3413,736
F4106.S2914,284
F4106.S2214,334
F4511.S3014,363
F4917.S3515,398
F4106.S2315,482
F4917.S3616,307
F4106.S2516,433
F4106.S2716,923
F4106.S2617,297
F4511.S3117,764
F4106.S2417,779
F4106.S2818,380
 
 
 

VII. Analysis - Read Taxonomy Assignment

Read Taxonomy Assignment - Methods

 

The species-level, open-reference 16S rRNA NGS reads taxonomy assignment pipeline

Version 20210310
 

1. Raw sequences reads in FASTA format were BLASTN-searched against a combined set of 16S rRNA reference sequences. It consists of MOMD (version 0.1), the HOMD (version 15.2 http://www.homd.org/index.php?name=seqDownload&file&type=R ), HOMD 16S rRNA RefSeq Extended Version 1.1 (EXT), GreenGene Gold (GG) (http://greengenes.lbl.gov/Download/Sequence_Data/Fasta_data_files/gold_strains_gg16S_aligned.fasta.gz) , and the NCBI 16S rRNA reference sequence set (https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/blast/db/16S_ribosomal_RNA.tar.gz). These sequences were screened and combined to remove short sequences (<1000nt), chimera, duplicated and sub-sequences, as well as sequences with poor taxonomy annotation (e.g., without species information). This process resulted in 1,015 from HOMD V15.22, 495 from EXT, 3,940 from GG and 18,044 from NCBI, a total of 25,120 sequences. Altogether these sequence represent a total of 15,601 oral and non-oral microbial species.

The NCBI BLASTN version 2.7.1+ (Zhang et al, 2000) was used with the default parameters. Reads with ≥ 98% sequence identity to the matched reference and ≥ 90% alignment length (i.e., ≥ 90% of the read length that was aligned to the reference and was used to calculate the sequence percent identity) were classified based on the taxonomy of the reference sequence with highest sequence identity. If a read matched with reference sequences representing more than one species with equal percent identity and alignment length, it was subject to chimera checking with USEARCH program version v8.1.1861 (Edgar 2010). Non-chimeric reads with multi-species best hits were considered valid and were assigned with a unique species notation (e.g., spp) denoting unresolvable multiple species.

2. Unassigned reads (i.e., reads with < 98% identity or < 90% alignment length) were pooled together and reads < 200 bases were removed. The remaining reads were subject to the de novo operational taxonomy unit (OTU) calling and chimera checking using the USEARCH program version v8.1.1861 (Edgar 2010). The de novo OTU calling and chimera checking was done using 98% as the sequence identity cutoff, i.e., the species-level OTU. The output of this step produced species-level de novo clustered OTUs with 98% identity. Representative reads from each of the OTUs/species were then BLASTN-searched against the same reference sequence set again to determine the closest species for these potential novel species. These potential novel species were pooled together with the reads that were signed to specie-level in the previous step, for down-stream analyses.

Reference:
Edgar RC. Search and clustering orders of magnitude faster than BLAST. Bioinformatics. 2010 Oct 1;26(19):2460-1. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btq461. Epub 2010 Aug 12. PubMed PMID: 20709691.

3. Designations used in the taxonomy:

	1) Taxonomy levels are indicated by these prefixes:
	
	   k__: domain/kingdom
	   p__: phylum
	   c__: class
	   o__: order
	   f__: family
	   g__: genus  
	   s__: species
	
	   Example: 
	
	   k__Bacteria;p__Firmicutes;c__Clostridia;o__Clostridiales;f__Lachnospiraceae;g__Blautia;s__faecis
		
	2) Unique level identified – known species:
	   
	   k__Bacteria;p__Firmicutes;c__Clostridia;o__Clostridiales;f__Lachnospiraceae;g__Roseburia;s__hominis
	
	   The above example shows some reads match to a single species (all levels are unique)
	
	3) Non-unique level identified – known species:

	   k__Bacteria;p__Firmicutes;c__Clostridia;o__Clostridiales;f__Lachnospiraceae;g__Roseburia;s__multispecies_spp123_3
	   
	   The above example “s__multispecies_spp123_3” indicates certain reads equally match to 3 species of the 
	   genus Roseburia; the “spp123” is a temporally assigned species ID.
	
	   k__Bacteria;p__Firmicutes;c__Clostridia;o__Clostridiales;f__Lachnospiraceae;g__multigenus;s__multispecies_spp234_5
	   
	   The above example indicates certain reads match equally to 5 different species, which belong to multiple genera.; 
	   the “spp234” is a temporally assigned species ID.
	
	4) Unique level identified – unknown species, potential novel species:
	   
	   k__Bacteria;p__Firmicutes;c__Clostridia;o__Clostridiales;f__Lachnospiraceae;g__Roseburia;s__ hominis_nov_97%
	   
	   The above example indicates that some reads have no match to any of the reference sequences with 
	   sequence identity ≥ 98% and percent coverage (alignment length)  ≥ 98% as well. However this groups 
	   of reads (actually the representative read from a de novo  OTU) has 96% percent identity to 
	   Roseburia hominis, thus this is a potential novel species, closest to Roseburia hominis. 
	   (But they are not the same species).
	
	5) Multiple level identified – unknown species, potential novel species:
	   k__Bacteria;p__Firmicutes;c__Clostridia;o__Clostridiales;f__Lachnospiraceae;g__Roseburia;s__ multispecies_sppn123_3_nov_96%
	
	   The above example indicates that some reads have no match to any of the reference sequences 
	   with sequence identity ≥ 98% and percent coverage (alignment length)  ≥ 98% as well. 
	   However this groups of reads (actually the representative read from a de novo  OTU) 
	   has 96% percent identity equally to 3 species in Roseburia. Thus this is no single 
	   closest species, instead this group of reads match equally to multiple species at 96%. 
	   Since they have passed chimera check so they represent a novel species. “sppn123” is a 
	   temporary ID for this potential novel species. 

 
4. The taxonomy assignment algorithm is illustrated in this flow char below:
 
 
 
 

Read Taxonomy Assignment - Result Summary *

CodeCategoryMPC=0% (>=1 read)MPC=0.1%(>=481 reads)
ATotal reads482,160482,160
BTotal assigned reads481,207481,207
CAssigned reads in species with read count < MPC031,033
DAssigned reads in samples with read count < 50000
ETotal samples4040
FSamples with reads >= 5004040
GSamples with reads < 50000
HTotal assigned reads used for analysis (B-C-D)481,207450,174
IReads assigned to single species449,410427,295
JReads assigned to multiple species18,05716,563
KReads assigned to novel species13,7406,316
LTotal number of species409133
MNumber of single species266122
NNumber of multi-species195
ONumber of novel species1246
PTotal unassigned reads953953
QChimeric reads189189
RReads without BLASTN hits44
SOthers: short, low quality, singletons, etc.760760
A=B+P=C+D+H+Q+R+S
E=F+G
B=C+D+H
H=I+J+K
L=M+N+O
P=Q+R+S
* MPC = Minimal percent (of all assigned reads) read count per species, species with read count < MPC were removed.
* Samples with reads < 500 were removed from downstream analyses.
* The assignment result from MPC=0.1% was used in the downstream analyses.
 
 
 

Read Taxonomy Assignment - ASV Species-Level Read Counts Table

This table shows the read counts for each sample (columns) and each species identified based on the ASV sequences. The downstream analyses were based on this table.
SPIDTaxonomyF4083.S01F4083.S02F4083.S03F4083.S04F4083.S05F4083.S06F4083.S07F4083.S08F4083.S09F4083.S10F4083.S11F4083.S12F4083.S13F4083.S14F4083.S15F4083.S16F4083.S17F4083.S18F4083.S19F4083.S20F4106.S21F4106.S22F4106.S23F4106.S24F4106.S25F4106.S26F4106.S27F4106.S28F4106.S29F4511.S30F4511.S31F4917.S32F4917.S33F4917.S34F4917.S35F4917.S36F4917.S37F4917.S38F4917.S39F4917.S40
SP1Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Lactobacillales;Streptococcaceae;Streptococcus;sp._str._C300154319214971063048392319389458869468365173889192720546480866687113724123454260733422318121745810361852676247402900325
SP10Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroidia;Bacteroidales;Porphyromonadaceae;Porphyromonas;sp. HMT930200017820626014038540001190100440012203724006413800147001110178064010400
SP100Bacteria;Saccharibacteria_(TM7);Saccharibacteria_(TM7)_[C-1];Saccharibacteria_(TM7)_[O-1];Saccharibacteria_(TM7)_[F-1];Saccharibacteria_(TM7)_[G-1];bacterium HMT3480001581600183425483241290002215461000071127159331427828900275049000330
SP101Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Gammaproteobacteria;Pasteurellales;Pasteurellaceae;Haemophilus;sp. HMT908012909105430988152004312209281051000001300143000000000573660
SP104Bacteria;Firmicutes;Clostridia;Clostridiales;Lachnospiraceae_[XIV];Lachnoanaerobaculum;umeaense00076000058661180000900000000128002070000000020501352140
SP105Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Gammaproteobacteria;Pseudomonadales;Moraxellaceae;Moraxella;sp._Oral_Taxon_B070000007100000000006100001600001320000000579012300
SP106Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroidia;Bacteroidales;Prevotellaceae;Prevotella;histicola012401041120342700000000490001627600020800121012000000000
SP108Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Bacillales;Staphylococcaceae;Gemella;moribillum0000084000470110104012100810001190421161530010900021318100077138
SP109Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Gammaproteobacteria;Pasteurellales;Pasteurellaceae;Haemophilus;haemolyticus1720666689156115336300000005314193291168025018818501110238001610516815110129410
SP11Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroidia;Bacteroidales;Porphyromonadaceae;Porphyromonas;catoniae00313705200661318814087890037513600029521761133270307132940012000202612420
SP110Bacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteriia;Fusobacteriales;Leptotrichiaceae;Leptotrichia;sp. HMT219000000000816014000000000000016711001158600000124610
SP112Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroidia;Bacteroidales;Prevotellaceae;Alloprevotella;sp. HMT3085500016203465000004048440002490001120000000000870440089
SP114Bacteria;Firmicutes;Clostridia;Clostridiales;Lachnospiraceae_[XIV];Lachnospiraceae_[G-3];bacterium HMT100000500012028079059359300000000694201580310000040003300
SP116Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroidia;Bacteroidales;Prevotellaceae;Prevotella;pallens00130950002400001590031000208091070025000000001270000
SP117Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroidia;Bacteroidales;Prevotellaceae;Alloprevotella;sp. HMT91200072063158032880000000420390000003400000000147033050
SP118Bacteria;Saccharibacteria_(TM7);Saccharibacteria_(TM7)_[C-1];Saccharibacteria_(TM7)_[O-1];Saccharibacteria_(TM7)_[F-1];Saccharibacteria_(TM7)_[G-1];bacterium HMT34600095100022243500004200001300000018400023500960000000
SP12Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Gammaproteobacteria;Pasteurellales;Pasteurellaceae;Haemophilus;parahaemolyticus37187000067000000254000510002108076000000001240001661870
SP120Bacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteriia;Fusobacteriales;Fusobacteriaceae;Fusobacterium;sp. HMT248000000000370000000000000000000000000525021000
SP121Bacteria;Firmicutes;Clostridia;Clostridiales;Ruminococcaceae;Ruminococcaceae_[G-1];bacterium HMT0750004363069002500081002701700040005316250142005906510902900
SP122Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Lactobacillales;Streptococcaceae;Streptococcus;salivarius0588042170186000000630015600121184083088000051000000000
SP13Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Gammaproteobacteria;Pasteurellales;Pasteurellaceae;Haemophilus;paraphrohaemolyticus11707011900345470198178053102198820100000242138000000030900036000117
SP130Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Flavobacteriia;Flavobacteriales;Flavobacteriaceae;Capnocytophaga;gingivalis002800370000517778740000842700005833196137003822010000016800
SP131Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Betaproteobacteria;Neisseriales;Neisseriaceae;Neisseria;cinerea00000470047102000141481600011301111230012529000343240350001493710
SP132Bacteria;Actinobacteria;Actinobacteria;Actinomycetales;Actinomycetaceae;Actinomyces;sp. HMT175000590000163000500940000000005411200000000000000
SP137Bacteria;Saccharibacteria_(TM7);Saccharibacteria_(TM7)_[C-1];Saccharibacteria_(TM7)_[O-1];Saccharibacteria_(TM7)_[F-1];Saccharibacteria_(TM7)_[G-1];bacterium HMT34714940230000200480028780000000000132005700000000000
SP138Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Lactobacillales;Streptococcaceae;Streptococcus;oralis_subsp._dentisani_clade_058190000005401400017000000000170000131122000001220000
SP139Bacteria;Firmicutes;Negativicutes;Selenomonadales;Selenomonadaceae;Selenomonas;sputigena00046106001218000031002601201031130006126000009701300000
SP14Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Betaproteobacteria;Burkholderiales;Burkholderiaceae;Lautropia;mirabilis155691956938003133000019127251720841041480021631608426439281402275164680270015104059
SP142Bacteria;Actinobacteria;Actinomycetia;Actinomycetales;Actinomycetaceae;Actinomyces;naeslundii000000006100151000000000021170142000000000000000
SP144Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Flavobacteriia;Flavobacteriales;Flavobacteriaceae;Capnocytophaga;sputigena1737760000011701460750146510304500052543517210521262126105730011505316300
SP145Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroidia;Bacteroidales;Porphyromonadaceae;Porphyromonas;sp. HMT27822000060014000043000000000000010300006302245210800590
SP147Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Gammaproteobacteria;Cardiobacteriales;Cardiobacteriaceae;Cardiobacterium;valvarum000000000056840001800000000116000002800000018215354
SP148Bacteria;Actinobacteria;Actinobacteria;Actinomycetales;Actinomycetaceae;Actinomyces;sp._str._ChDCB197000000000014700000000001640015008700000032000000
SP15Bacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteriales;Leptotrichiaceae;Leptotrichia;hofstadii3742002500082700599814940044850006303296304492506450000000000
SP150Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroidia;Bacteroidales;Prevotellaceae;Prevotella;salivae00064648000000032000000147223000398091500000000000
SP152Bacteria;Actinobacteria;Actinobacteria;Corynebacteriales;Corynebacteriaceae;Corynebacterium;matruchotii0005200000010300800005000000136338000000000000000
SP155Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Gammaproteobacteria;Pasteurellales;Pasteurellaceae;Haemophilus;sp. HMT0360007378582700151483202023735017268000850002500107069210000113000227
SP16Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Lactobacillales;Streptococcaceae;Streptococcus;mutans2650731114764900078000029013193238353014514126503300002806009000
SP166Bacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteriia;Fusobacteriales;Leptotrichiaceae;Leptotrichia;trevisanii00000000035250330003201200009251007155048000000059860
SP17Bacteria;Actinobacteria;Actinomycetia;Actinomycetales;Actinomycetaceae;Actinomyces;johnsonii00000034000000000020000004943045022114300000003730728
SP173Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroidia;Bacteroidales;Prevotellaceae;Prevotella;oulorum022007300000000161330400010125161010029502200193000000000
SP175Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroidia;Bacteroidales;Prevotellaceae;Prevotella;veroralis011101900023000000000034002810000005200000000000
SP180Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroidia;Bacteroidales;Prevotellaceae;Alloprevotella;sp. HMT91300331230161443802427001110174600000000236137105000000101075068
SP181Bacteria;Firmicutes;Clostridia;Eubacteriales;Lachnospiraceae;Lachnoanaerobaculum;orale00004207800004015600000008713814837000001910000165000039
SP183Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Gammaproteobacteria;Pasteurellales;Pasteurellaceae;Aggregatibacter;sp. HMT9490001170610000000000000000015700013633300000000000
SP184Bacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteriia;Fusobacteriales;Leptotrichiaceae;Leptotrichia;sp. HMT417000530810151109000000020900000000000000000000000
SP185Bacteria;Actinobacteria;Actinomycetia;Propionibacteriales;Propionibacteriaceae;Arachnia;propionica001199701361412412081036269303833628000058326254205630741555200062023469129
SP19Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Lactobacillales;Carnobacteriaceae;Granulicatella;elegans381760261342398392014757562178875301453061604328339032023371804663661495454300117705690478105477227464897308
SP195Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Betaproteobacteria;Neisseriales;Neisseriaceae;Neisseria;subflava00056005700000023000000000016100000275000002110000
SP196Bacteria;Actinobacteria;Actinobacteria;Actinomycetales;Actinomycetaceae;Actinomyces;massiliensis000000005500000000000000103417000000000000000
SP2Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Gammaproteobacteria;Pasteurellales;Pasteurellaceae;Haemophilus;parainfluenzae46619615703588240016240374621117001392208144251247369214260221070988210433477747328512547111580950248601262551879445
SP20Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Lactobacillales;Aerococcaceae;Abiotrophia;defectiva2439315812220177186711851806308685168198081308141015499187204271861817900286110766544450287123760
SP204Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Flavobacteriia;Flavobacteriales;Flavobacteriaceae;Bergeyella;sp. HMT2066100007471012160003006300361140175000102000011778000300238096
SP21Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Lactobacillales;Streptococcaceae;Streptococcus;sanguinis65302833011137319719949622520629257484528467013338639858923977969280528364759910243886585571516071117269596725175670
SP215Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroides;Bacteroidales;Porphyromonadaceae;Porphyromonas;sp._Oral_Taxon_B4317000010358000000630005600000000010901850000000000
SP22Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Lactobacillales;Streptococcaceae;Streptococcus;infantis00200330017910100600006456036001410026900014000036144000004600
SP23Bacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteriia;Fusobacteriales;Leptotrichiaceae;Leptotrichia;sp. HMT212375893630074831460900142770311212807500124157305174241324152961310011126900147220148
SP24Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Gammaproteobacteria;Pasteurellales;Pasteurellaceae;Aggregatibacter;sp. HMT898009700000000004408500000004472005500000000028100
SP25Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Betaproteobacteria;Neisseriales;Neisseriaceae;Kingella;oralis181190870034497546110808919770001007517200013111502100850230001501331340161
SP26Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroidia;Bacteroidales;Prevotellaceae;Prevotella;sp. HMT3140002686660054000000023000651000000016000000830000
SP27Bacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteriales;Leptotrichiaceae;Leptotrichia;shahii000134415702191560010467145153254020100000210021742300000027402040512
SP29Bacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteriia;Fusobacteriales;Fusobacteriaceae;Fusobacterium;nucleatum0000000001201440165860018000000041613701167652235257000064038601780
SP3Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Lactobacillales;Streptococcaceae;Streptococcus;mitis8917172537991355450476672831266429158987270414965937151451271153973010749201053782797154845135010151437563560392542373171361786
SP30Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Lactobacillales;Streptococcaceae;Streptococcus;parasanguinis_II14135019102131271000130000550008910306001500050027000000000
SP33Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Lactobacillales;Carnobacteriaceae;Granulicatella;paradiacens0005676013600133000107114621951806400367069017600289330002444330010900
SP35Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Betaproteobacteria;Neisseriales;Neisseriaceae;Neisseria;flavescens|subflava890255043036042379801050871209975367812703925901472622430013113601283989101825010
SP36Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroidia;Bacteroidales;Prevotellaceae;Alloprevotella;sp. HMT4731221430753449808713122084701920356483712111183904150012102643721712232060040800014722691290264
SP37Bacteria;Firmicutes;Clostridia;Clostridiales;Veillonellaceae;Veillonella;parvula6391980212109641325428786065881344450316447462270461146656581100828269911072118811231267661595283171150191246741128812576343431280
SP38Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Lactobacillales;Streptococcaceae;Streptococcus;cristatus2741324038310644261179298117891373372381615412335418216601621061291995514293453884383591803663103625535836017779
SP39Bacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteriia;Fusobacteriales;Leptotrichiaceae;Leptotrichia;sp. HMT225000410096029664900000000000082073480004401470000000
SP4Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Lactobacillales;Streptococcaceae;Streptococcus;oralis_subsp._tigurinus_clade_07000062410173720200001900146000000000000028022800630000
SP40Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Lactobacillales;Streptococcaceae;Streptococcus;oralis635779018913119228189114318077474832534004397547734177322123935256498327112826748338712359841402258145460114
SP41Bacteria;Firmicutes;Negativicutes;Veillonellales;Veillonellaceae;Veillonella;sp. HMT7800162095215292001351630179010552197144351461723635951035015501073460371572690001223660496
SP42Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Bacillales;Staphylococcaceae;Gemella;haemolysans11416942222491161101100247541228018845182661622101502148139122420401281502420104150180726713690232746189
SP44Bacteria;Actinobacteria;Actinobacteria;Actinomycetales;Micrococcaceae;Rothia;dentocariosa0105096031110035061174238591632677622079030704032001430113137112280000000000
SP45Bacteria;Actinobacteria;Actinobacteria;Actinomycetales;Micrococcaceae;Rothia;mucilaginosa07622053002011670117115014700033184010001760270000000110000000000
SP47Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Betaproteobacteria;Neisseriales;Neisseriaceae;Neisseria;sicca046205113936427318413102237109376244314551196161414770110739004872454903350851350103319114401071315175
SP48Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Gammaproteobacteria;Cardiobacteriales;Cardiobacteriaceae;Cardiobacterium;hominis16214326000000401061140570019520000292812192881461021151931660051009714173
SP49Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroidia;Bacteroidales;Porphyromonadaceae;Porphyromonas;pasteri13016180863762281703481261351341670299141195255198137112468030256403594982426142470167209126284228133283203161
SP5Bacteria;Firmicutes;Negativicutes;Veillonellales;Veillonellaceae;Veillonella;atypica04201922202801080000203100185000100189500054100118000449001610000
SP51Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroidia;Bacteroidales;Prevotellaceae;Alloprevotella;sp. HMT9140064234265124670813213014700312845000158000002040000114842820000
SP53Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Betaproteobacteria;Neisseriales;Neisseriaceae;Neisseria;elongata008212402825700101000556313700000129223047114001500002470187700
SP54Bacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteriales;Leptotrichiaceae;Leptotrichia;sp._AF189244.12048532502231648031152915674482691019235171126012910245401788781358352369995258618915521947082225390625
SP55Bacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteriia;Fusobacteriales;Leptotrichiaceae;Leptotrichia;wadei025702893771351570000001680070000021903161792690000259040800600000
SP57Bacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteriia;Fusobacteriales;Leptotrichiaceae;Leptotrichia;sp. HMT498000216880171185000001190000002112090192020500246390005190000000
SP58Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroidia;Bacteroidales;Prevotellaceae;Prevotella;sp. HMT317000001461056600000213495013005814800036232342934766330671900000000468164
SP6Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Gammaproteobacteria;Pasteurellales;Pasteurellaceae;Aggregatibacter;sp. HMT51300061094000014309500771321140000000171000000003515820000
SP60Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Betaproteobacteria;Neisseriales;Neisseriaceae;Neisseria;mucosa3354349360002281513121302087003180000026000144841815453718738726824336329010060000118
SP61Bacteria;Actinobacteria;Actinobacteria;Actinomycetales;Micrococcaceae;Rothia;aeria0911130620280359827460127010907612300075250058217029872500022100000
SP62Bacteria;Actinobacteria;Actinobacteria;Corynebacteriales;Corynebacteriaceae;Corynebacterium;durum020350022000850038263412200000008919800680004900000000
SP63Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Bacillales;Gemellaceae;Gemella;morbillorum3400685651102351461070046193920231296354000231808103590662002006722523806600
SP64Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Gammaproteobacteria;Pasteurellales;Pasteurellaceae;Aggregatibacter;sp. HMT4580008208546007445001042466830331909200050941737717250824144214500000062750
SP66Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Betaproteobacteria;Neisseriales;Neisseriaceae;Kingella;denitrificans9384000067045000013614168900217348500139142524561900685000273027010949
SP67Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Flavobacteriia;Flavobacteriales;Flavobacteriaceae;Capnocytophaga;granulosa00091006208405212700105015600000019801940196000000000000
SP68Bacteria;Saccharibacteria_(TM7);Saccharibacteria_(TM7)_[C-1];Saccharibacteria_(TM7)_[O-1];Saccharibacteria_(TM7)_[F-1];Saccharibacteria_(TM7)_[G-6];bacterium HMT870000002910814827172096007303900254911100031800880000146239036000
SP7Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroidia;Bacteroidales;Prevotellaceae;Prevotella;melaninogenica23909115434918733389988704771371352631073881560065883379331049417515547645327720143188522156360474
SP70Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Lactobacillales;Streptococcaceae;Streptococcus;sp. HMT0560440010600000038760085470011100001600001170130600000000307
SP72Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Lactobacillales;Streptococcaceae;Streptococcus;sp._Oral_Taxon_B6602910006200213990001066300000000000007100000131000051
SP73Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Betaproteobacteria;Neisseriales;Neisseriaceae;Neisseria;sp. HMT01800220000000000000000000004025000023226500000000
SP74Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Gammaproteobacteria;Pasteurellales;Pasteurellaceae;Haemophilus;sputorum00000000044000000017398000000005800000000034600
SP75Bacteria;Actinobacteria;Actinobacteria;Actinomycetales;Actinomycetaceae;Actinomyces;odontolyticus0000038090760440051000480400007800004600000000000
SP76Bacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteriales;Fusobacteriaceae;Fusobacterium;nucleatum_ss_polymorphum00532650000154034400011900000119026656568605415001534301966350002670266494581
SP77Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Lactobacillales;Streptococcaceae;Streptococcus;intermedius21750015002806010739014701170003501225149834131452000403145015
SP78Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroidia;Bacteroidales;Prevotellaceae;Prevotella;loescheii0000710002817358010600000000021109100000103000000000
SP79Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Betaproteobacteria;Neisseriales;Neisseriaceae;Neisseria;sp._Oral_Taxon_140019800000005501040075046000001510081810017200000035200
SP8Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Lactobacillales;Streptococcaceae;Streptococcus;gordonii2270022647024146189109054060771646318919018515902701153301520004220015803232177
SP80Bacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteriia;Fusobacteriales;Leptotrichiaceae;Leptotrichia;sp. HMT21562010600000140270111456862955000099700670135102000630680038
SP81Bacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteriia;Fusobacteriales;Leptotrichiaceae;Leptotrichia;buccalis6201934809110902466327602061990082376062000201201356487299082900000092131192158
SP82Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Flavobacteriia;Flavobacteriales;Flavobacteriaceae;Capnocytophaga;leadbetteri00055068050562723140696876015364483016001263513616437917602050001661050859054
SP84Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Lactobacillales;Carnobacteriaceae;Granulicatella;adiacens1551560115001095114400004406900892272621130000000140910523299458314397000
SP85Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Gammaproteobacteria;Pasteurellales;Pasteurellaceae;Aggregatibacter;aphrophilus1500000780102083013200004800000340000000000060026700
SP86Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroidia;Bacteroidales;Prevotellaceae;Prevotella;oris00086000200066018373013000613000071306480156000000000
SP89Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Betaproteobacteria;Neisseriales;Neisseriaceae;Eikenella;corrodens000212652000041594200184100260042007417700440139000001042270
SP9Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroides;Bacteroidales;Porphyromonadaceae;Porphyromonas;sp._Oral_Taxon_C34000001438500048003200001601090490000000000000145000319
SP90Bacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteriia;Fusobacteriales;Leptotrichiaceae;Leptotrichia;sp. HMT22115470158770000000790000000018500039200000098380000056
SP93Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroidia;Bacteroidales;Prevotellaceae;Prevotella;sp. HMT3060220224200060000064092800021200000350000000000000
SP94Bacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteriia;Fusobacteriales;Leptotrichiaceae;Leptotrichia;sp. HMT39216014890418506212017701051140131712900000103461462639119546036014141108012010460
SP95Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Gammaproteobacteria;Pasteurellales;Pasteurellaceae;Aggregatibacter;segnis4200240015500013300122003500000020461006300000010557003980
SP96Bacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteriales;Fusobacteriaceae;Fusobacterium;periodonticum00580010112600042000000158090036218500379007340000765827017000
SP97Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroidia;Bacteroidales;Porphyromonadaceae;Tannerella;sp. HMT286000801554047016860315593301043634680002121431302291082417700004200398536
SP98Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Lactobacillales;Streptococcaceae;Streptococcus;chosunense9044000640001030115001550766808103811150001870770000000085059
SP99Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Flavobacteriia;Flavobacteriales;Flavobacteriaceae;Bergeyella;sp. HMT3223219138161922563367069010439028223382000558811912143141106010720802143244757138045
SPN100Bacteria;Proteobacteria;Gammaproteobacteria;Cardiobacteriales;Cardiobacteriaceae;Cardiobacterium;hominis_nov_97.313%0000000040280002600000610001909103000031000000000
SPN53Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroidia;Bacteroidales;Porphyromonadaceae;Porphyromonas;catoniae_nov_97.909%00033006811054690093021339000000001110202000490084155087780
SPN65Bacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteriia;Fusobacteriales;Leptotrichiaceae;Streptobacillus;notomytis_nov_93.922%00001058743920410000000007300000199099000000010400227242
SPN76Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroidia;Bacteroidales;Prevotellaceae;Alloprevotella;sp. HMT473 nov_97.436%006000000000006000043000040000008500003826489001720
SPN89Bacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteriales;Fusobacteriaceae;Fusobacterium;nucleatum_ss_polymorphum_nov_97.741%0000000000000000000000000000184001110002660000
SPP14Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Lactobacillales;Streptococcaceae;Streptococcus;multispecies_spp14_233245005010771090014337501091580018636713535317147096000005879300289000003070157
SPP15Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Lactobacillales;Carnobacteriaceae;Granulicatella;multispecies_spp15_264231172300172667300121107661707049310000311950034000850035700001880
SPP19Bacteria;Firmicutes;Clostridia;multiorder;multifamily;Eubacterium_[XIVa][G-1];saburreum053075914505626000298324506805279106390103107109001822791400228000000144
SPP2Bacteria;Bacteroidetes;Bacteroides;Bacteroidales;Porphyromonadaceae;Porphyromonas;multispecies_spp2_2380004700002070000560764025801227200000022308134700000000
SPP8Bacteria;Firmicutes;Bacilli;Lactobacillales;Streptococcaceae;Streptococcus;multispecies_spp8_35301132080001690008509200011500066500334196206000368306000343875500
SPPN1Bacteria;Fusobacteria;Fusobacteriia;Fusobacteriales;Leptotrichiaceae;Leptotrichia;goodfellowii00000000086000001460012613902300002440000001560018901591120
 
 
Download OTU Tables at Different Taxonomy Levels
PhylumCount*: Relative**: CLR***:
ClassCount*: Relative**: CLR***:
OrderCount*: Relative**: CLR***:
FamilyCount*: Relative**: CLR***:
GenusCount*: Relative**: CLR***:
SpeciesCount*: Relative**: CLR***:
* Read count
** Relative abundance (count/total sample count)
*** Centered log ratio transformed abundance
;
 
The species listed in the table has full taxonomy and a dynamically assigned species ID specific to this report. When some reads match with the reference sequences of more than one species equally (i.e., same percent identiy and alignmnet coverage), they can't be assigned to a particular species. Instead, they are assigned to multiple species with the species notaton "s__multispecies_spp2_2". In this notation, spp2 is the dynamic ID assigned to these reads that hit multiple sequences and the "_2" at the end of the notation means there are two species in the spp2.

You can look up which species are included in the multi-species assignment, in this table below:
 
 
 
 
Another type of notation is "s__multispecies_sppn2_2", in which the "n" in the sppn2 means it's a potential novel species because all the reads in this species have < 98% idenity to any of the reference sequences. They were grouped together based on de novo OTU clustering at 98% identity cutoff. And then a representative sequence was chosed to BLASTN search against the reference database to find the closest match (but will still be < 98%). This representative sequence also matched equally to more than one species, hence the "spp" was given in the label.
 
 

Taxonomy Bar Plots for All Samples

 
 

Taxonomy Bar Plots for Individual Comparison Groups

 
 
Comparison No.Comparison NameFamiliesGeneraSpecies
Comparison 1SECC vs CFPDFSVGPDFSVGPDFSVG
 
 

VIII. Analysis - Alpha Diversity

 

In ecology, alpha diversity (α-diversity) is the mean species diversity in sites or habitats at a local scale. The term was introduced by R. H. Whittaker[1][2] together with the terms beta diversity (β-diversity) and gamma diversity (γ-diversity). Whittaker's idea was that the total species diversity in a landscape (gamma diversity) is determined by two different things, the mean species diversity in sites or habitats at a more local scale (alpha diversity) and the differentiation among those habitats (beta diversity).


References:
Whittaker, R. H. (1960) Vegetation of the Siskiyou Mountains, Oregon and California. Ecological Monographs, 30, 279–338. doi:10.2307/1943563
Whittaker, R. H. (1972). Evolution and Measurement of Species Diversity. Taxon, 21, 213-251. doi:10.2307/1218190

 

Alpha Diversity Analysis by Rarefaction

Diversity measures are affected by the sampling depth. Rarefaction is a technique to assess species richness from the results of sampling. Rarefaction allows the calculation of species richness for a given number of individual samples, based on the construction of so-called rarefaction curves. This curve is a plot of the number of species as a function of the number of samples. Rarefaction curves generally grow rapidly at first, as the most common species are found, but the curves plateau as only the rarest species remain to be sampled.


References:
Willis AD. Rarefaction, Alpha Diversity, and Statistics. Front Microbiol. 2019 Oct 23;10:2407. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2019.02407. PMID: 31708888; PMCID: PMC6819366.

 
 
 

Boxplot of Alpha-diversity Indices

The two main factors taken into account when measuring diversity are richness and evenness. Richness is a measure of the number of different kinds of organisms present in a particular area. Evenness compares the similarity of the population size of each of the species present. There are many different ways to measure the richness and evenness. These measurements are called "estimators" or "indices". Below is a diversity of 3 commonly used indices showing the values for all the samples (dots) and in groups (boxes).

 
Alpha Diversity Box Plots for All Groups
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Alpha Diversity Box Plots for Individual Comparisons
 
Comparison 1SECC vs CFView in PDFView in SVG
 
 
 

Group Significance of Alpha-diversity Indices

To test whether the alpha diversity among different comparison groups are different statisticall, we use the Kruskal Wallis H test provided the "alpha-group-significance" fucntion in the QIIME 2 diversity package. Kruskal Wallis H test is the non parametric alternative to the One Way ANOVA. Non parametric means that the test doesn’t assume your data comes from a particular distribution. The H test is used when the assumptions for ANOVA aren’t met (like the assumption of normality). It is sometimes called the one-way ANOVA on ranks, as the ranks of the data values are used in the test rather than the actual data points. The test determines whether the medians of two or more groups are different.

Below are the Kruskal Wallis H test results for each comparison based on three different alpha diversity measures: 1) Observed species (features), 2) Shannon index, and 3) Simpson index.

 
 
Comparison 1.SECC vs CFObserved FeaturesShannon IndexSimpson Index
 
 

IX. Analysis - Beta Diversity

 

NMDS and PCoA Plots

Beta diversity compares the similarity (or dissimilarity) of microbial profiles between different groups of samples. There are many different similarity/dissimilarity metrics. In general, they can be quantitative (using sequence abundance, e.g., Bray-Curtis or weighted UniFrac) or binary (considering only presence-absence of sequences, e.g., binary Jaccard or unweighted UniFrac). They can be even based on phylogeny (e.g., UniFrac metrics) or not (non-UniFrac metrics, such as Bray-Curtis, etc.).

For microbiome studies, species profiles of samples can be compared with the Bray-Curtis dissimilarity, which is based on the count data type. The pair-wise Bray-Curtis dissimilarity matrix of all samples can then be subject to either multi-dimensional scaling (MDS, also known as PCoA) or non-metric MDS (NMDS).

MDS/PCoA is a scaling or ordination method that starts with a matrix of similarities or dissimilarities between a set of samples and aims to produce a low-dimensional graphical plot of the data in such a way that distances between points in the plot are close to original dissimilarities.

NMDS is similar to MDS, however it does not use the dissimilarities data, instead it converts them into the ranks and use these ranks in the calculation.

In our beta diversity analysis, Bray-Curtis dissimilarity matrix was first calculated and then plotted by the PCoA and NMDS separately. Below are beta diveristy results for all groups together:

 
 
NMDS and PCoA Plots for All Groups
 
 
 
 
 

The above PCoA and NMDS plots are based on count data. The count data can also be transformed into centered log ratio (CLR) for each species. The CLR data is no longer count data and cannot be used in Bray-Curtis dissimilarity calculation. Instead CLR can be compared with Euclidean distances. When CLR data are compared by Euclidean distance, the distance is also called Aitchison distance.

Below are the NMDS and PCoA plots of the Aitchison distances of the samples:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
NMDS and PCoA Plots for Individual Comparisons
 
 
Comparison No.Comparison NameNMDAPCoA
Bray-CurtisCLR EuclideanBray-CurtisCLR Euclidean
Comparison 1SECC vs CFPDFSVGPDFSVGPDFSVGPDFSVG
 
 
 
 
 

Interactive 3D PCoA Plots - Bray-Curtis Dissimilarity

 
 
 

Interactive 3D PCoA Plots - Euclidean Distance

 
 
 

Interactive 3D PCoA Plots - Correlation Coefficients

 
 
 

Group Significance of Beta-diversity Indices

To test whether the between-group dissimilarities are significantly greater than the within-group dissimilarities, the "beta-group-significance" function provided in the QIIME 2 "diversity" package was used with PERMANOVA (permutational multivariate analysis of variance) chosen s the group significan testing method.

Three beta diversity matrics were used: 1) Bray–Curtis dissimilarity 2) Correlation coefficient matrix , and 3) Aitchison distance (Euclidean distance between clr-transformed compositions).

 
 
Comparison 1.SECC vs CFBray–CurtisCorrelationAitchison
 
 
 

X. Analysis - Differential Abundance

16S rRNA next generation sequencing (NGS) generates a fixed number of reads that reflect the proportion of different species in a sample, i.e., the relative abundance of species, instead of the absolute abundance. In Mathematics, measurements involving probabilities, proportions, percentages, and ppm can all be thought of as compositional data. This makes the microbiome read count data “compositional” (Gloor et al, 2017). In general, compositional data represent parts of a whole which only carry relative information (http://www.compositionaldata.com/).

The problem of microbiome data being compositional arises when comparing two groups of samples for identifying “differentially abundant” species. A species with the same absolute abundance between two conditions, its relative abundances in the two conditions (e.g., percent abundance) can become different if the relative abundance of other species change greatly. This problem can lead to incorrect conclusion in terms of differential abundance for microbial species in the samples.

When studying differential abundance (DA), the current better approach is to transform the read count data into log ratio data. The ratios are calculated between read counts of all species in a sample to a “reference” count (e.g., mean read count of the sample). The log ratio data allow the detection of DA species without being affected by percentage bias mentioned above

In this report, a compositional DA analysis tool “ANCOM” (analysis of composition of microbiomes) was used. ANCOM transforms the count data into log-ratios and thus is more suitable for comparing the composition of microbiomes in two or more populations. "ANCOM" generates a table of features with W-statistics and whether the null hypothesis is rejected. The “W” is the W-statistic, or number of features that a single feature is tested to be significantly different against. Hence the higher the "W" the more statistical sifgnificane that a feature/species is differentially abundant.


References:

Gloor GB, Macklaim JM, Pawlowsky-Glahn V, Egozcue JJ. Microbiome Datasets Are Compositional: And This Is Not Optional. Front Microbiol. 2017 Nov 15;8:2224. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.02224. PMID: 29187837; PMCID: PMC5695134.

Mandal S, Van Treuren W, White RA, Eggesbø M, Knight R, Peddada SD. Analysis of composition of microbiomes: a novel method for studying microbial composition. Microb Ecol Health Dis. 2015 May 29;26:27663. doi: 10.3402/mehd.v26.27663. PMID: 26028277; PMCID: PMC4450248.

Lin H, Peddada SD. Analysis of compositions of microbiomes with bias correction. Nat Commun. 2020 Jul 14;11(1):3514. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-17041-7. PMID: 32665548; PMCID: PMC7360769.

 
 

ANCOM Differential Abundance Analysis

 
ANCOM Results for Individual Comparisons
Comparison No.Comparison Name
Comparison 1.SECC vs CF
 
 

ANCOM-BC Differential Abundance Analysis

 

Starting with version V1.2, we also include the results of ANCOM-BC (Analysis of Compositions of Microbiomes with Bias Correction) (Lin and Peddada 2020). ANCOM-BC is an updated version of "ANCOM" that: (a) provides statistically valid test with appropriate p-values, (b) provides confidence intervals for differential abundance of each taxon, (c) controls the False Discovery Rate (FDR), (d) maintains adequate power, and (e) is computationally simple to implement. The bias correction (BC) addresses a challenging problem of the bias introduced by differences in the sampling fractions across samples. This bias has been a major hurdle in performing DA analysis of microbiome data. ANCOM-BC estimates the unknown sampling fractions and corrects the bias induced by their differences among samples. The absolute abundance data are modeled using a linear regression framework.

References:

Lin H, Peddada SD. Analysis of compositions of microbiomes with bias correction. Nat Commun. 2020 Jul 14;11(1):3514. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-17041-7. PMID: 32665548; PMCID: PMC7360769.

 
 
ANCOM-BC Results for Individual Comparisons
 
Comparison No.Comparison Name
Comparison 1.SECC vs CF
 
 
 

LEfSe - Linear Discriminant Analysis Effect Size

LEfSe (Linear Discriminant Analysis Effect Size) is an alternative method to find "organisms, genes, or pathways that consistently explain the differences between two or more microbial communities" (Segata et al., 2011). Specifically, LEfSe uses rank-based Kruskal-Wallis (KW) sum-rank test to detect features with significant differential (relative) abundance with respect to the class of interest. Since it is rank-based, instead of proportional based, the differential species identified among the comparison groups is less biased (than percent abundance based).

Reference:

Segata N, Izard J, Waldron L, Gevers D, Miropolsky L, Garrett WS, Huttenhower C. Metagenomic biomarker discovery and explanation. Genome Biol. 2011 Jun 24;12(6):R60. doi: 10.1186/gb-2011-12-6-r60. PMID: 21702898; PMCID: PMC3218848.

 
SECC vs CF
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

XI. Analysis - Heatmap Profile

 

Species vs Sample Abundance Heatmap for All Samples

 
 
 

Heatmaps for Individual Comparisons

 
A) Two-way clustering - clustered on both columns (Samples) and rows (organism)
Comparison No.Comparison NameFamily LevelGenus LevelSpecies Level
Comparison 1SECC vs CFPDFSVGPDFSVGPDFSVG
 
 
B) One-way clustering - clustered on rows (organism) only
Comparison No.Comparison NameFamily LevelGenus LevelSpecies Level
Comparison 1SECC vs CFPDFSVGPDFSVGPDFSVG
 
 
C) No clustering
Comparison No.Comparison NameFamily LevelGenus LevelSpecies Level
Comparison 1SECC vs CFPDFSVGPDFSVGPDFSVG
 
 

XII. Analysis - Network Association

To analyze the co-occurrence or co-exclusion between microbial species among different samples, network correlation analysis tools are usually used for this purpose. However, microbiome count data are compositional. If count data are normalized to the total number of counts in the sample, the data become not independent and traditional statistical metrics (e.g., correlation) for the detection of specie-species relationships can lead to spurious results. In addition, sequencing-based studies typically measure hundreds of OTUs (species) on few samples; thus, inference of OTU-OTU association networks is severely under-powered. Here we use SPIEC-EASI (SParse InversE Covariance Estimation for Ecological Association Inference), a statistical method for the inference of microbial ecological networks from amplicon sequencing datasets that addresses both of these issues (Kurtz et al., 2015). SPIEC-EASI combines data transformations developed for compositional data analysis with a graphical model inference framework that assumes the underlying ecological association network is sparse. SPIEC-EASI provides two algorithms for network inferencing – 1) Meinshausen-Bühlmann's neighborhood selection (MB method) and inverse covariance selection (GLASSO method, i.e., graphical least absolute shrinkage and selection operator). This is fundamentally distinct from SparCC, which essentially estimate pairwise correlations. In addition to these two methods, we provide the results of a third method - SparCC (Sparse Correlations for Compositional Data)(Friedman & Alm 2012), which is also a method for inferring correlations from compositional data. SparCC estimates the linear Pearson correlations between the log-transformed components.


References:

Kurtz ZD, Müller CL, Miraldi ER, Littman DR, Blaser MJ, Bonneau RA. Sparse and compositionally robust inference of microbial ecological networks. PLoS Comput Biol. 2015 May 7;11(5):e1004226. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004226. PMID: 25950956; PMCID: PMC4423992.

Friedman J, Alm EJ. Inferring correlation networks from genomic survey data. PLoS Comput Biol. 2012;8(9):e1002687. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002687. Epub 2012 Sep 20. PMID: 23028285; PMCID: PMC3447976.

 

SPIEC-EASI Network Inference by Neighborhood Selection (MB Method)

 

 

 

Association Network Inference by SparCC

 

 

 
 

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