Extracted DNA underwent the process of amplicon library preparation using
Ion 16STM Metagenomics Kit (Life Technologies, Carlsbad, CA, USA) following manufacturer instructions. Two sets of primers for the amplification of bacterial 16S rRNA were used: the first primer set was used to amplify 16S rRNA variable regions 2–4–8 (V 2–4–8), whereas the second primer set targeted 16S rRNA variable regions 3–6 and 7–9 (V 3–6; V 7–9). Prior to sequencing, the obtained amplicons of both primer sets were combined together for each sample. Immediately after preparation, libraries were examined for size, quality and concentration using
Agilent High-Sensitivity DNA Kit and
Bioanalyser 2100 instrument (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA).
16S rRNA amplicon sequencing was performed using the
Ion PGM System and
318 v2 chip (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA) according to the manufacturer instructions.
To control laboratory contamination, tick 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing procedures were accompanied by corresponding blank samples, which were also treated equally and underwent the same library preparation steps. However, blank control samples showed no detectable amplification (
Supplementary Figure S2).
Raw sequencing reads have been submitted to the European Nucleotide Archive, project accession PRJEB63277.
Namina A., Kazarina A., Lazovska M., Akopjana S., Ulanova V., Kivrane A., Freimane L., Sadovska D., Kimsis J., Bormane A., Capligina V, & Ranka R. (2023). Comparative Microbiome Analysis of Three Epidemiologically Important Tick Species in Latvia. Microorganisms, 11(8), 1970.