The 16S rRNA gene consists of nine hypervariable regions flanked by regions of more conserved sequence. To maximize the effective length of the MiSeq’s 250PE and 300PE sequencing reads, a region of approximately 469 bp encompassing the V3 and V4 hypervariable regions of the 16S rRNA gene was targeted for sequencing. This region provides ample information for taxonomic classification of microbial communities from specimens associated with human microbiome studies and was used by the Human Microbiome Project [5 (link)], however, the approach described could be adapted to any primer pairs.
To amplify and sequence the V3-V4 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene, primers were designed that contained: 1) a linker sequence allowing amplicons to bind to the flow cell and be sequenced using the standard Illumina HP10 or HP11 (Illumina, San Diego, CA, USA) sequencing primers; 2) a 12 bp index sequence; 3) a 0 to 7 bp “heterogeneity spacer” that we designed in this study to mitigate the issues caused by low sequence diversity amplicons (Additional file1 : Figure S1C); and 4) 16S rRNA gene universal primers (Figure 1 A and Additional file 2 ). Genomic DNA extracted from clinical vaginal and anal swabs were amplified, normalized using the SequalPrep Normalization Kit (Life Technologies, Carlsbad, CA, USA) and pooled (11 pools with 271 to 426 samples per pool) prior to sequencing on the MiSeq platform (see Additional file 3 and Table 1 for number of samples per pools). The amplicon pools were prepared for sequencing with AMPure XT beads (Beckman Coulter Genomics, Danvers, MA, USA) and the size and quantity of the amplicon library were assessed on the LabChip GX (Perkin Elmer, Waltham, MA, USA) and with the Library Quantification Kit for Illumina (Kapa Biosciences, Woburn, MA, USA), respectively. PhiX Control library (v3) (Illumina) was combined with the amplicon library (expected at 20%). The library was clustered to a density of approximately 570 K/mm2. The libraries were sequenced either on 250PE or 300PE MiSeq runs and one library was sequenced with both protocols using the standard Illumina sequencing primers (Figure 1 A), eliminating the need for a third (or fourth) index read. Sequencing data was available within approximately 48 hours. Image analysis, base calling and data quality assessment were performed on the MiSeq instrument.
To amplify and sequence the V3-V4 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene, primers were designed that contained: 1) a linker sequence allowing amplicons to bind to the flow cell and be sequenced using the standard Illumina HP10 or HP11 (Illumina, San Diego, CA, USA) sequencing primers; 2) a 12 bp index sequence; 3) a 0 to 7 bp “heterogeneity spacer” that we designed in this study to mitigate the issues caused by low sequence diversity amplicons (Additional file
Full text: Click here