Patent Application: US-51526207-A

Abstract:
embodiments of the invention herein described relate to multiplex polynucleotide sequence analysis without the use of size separation methods or blotting . in certain particulars the invention relates to multiplex sequencing using massively parallel sequencing methods , such as pyrosequencing methods and sequencing by synthesis . the invention provides increased throughput , increased accuracy of enumerating sample components , and the ability to analyze greater numbers of samples simultaneously or serially on presently available systems , as well as others yet to be developed . in certain of its embodiments the invention relates to the analysis of complex microbial communities , particularly to in - depth analysis thereof in large numbers of samples .

Description:
in certain aspects and embodiments the invention relates to multiplex sequencing analysis using tags . in various aspects and embodiments of the invention in this regard the invention provides methods for sequencing two or more samples simultaneously in a mixture with one another , wherein each sample is first linked to a sample - specific sequence tag , the tagged samples are mixed and sequenced , and the sequences from each sample then are identified by their respective sample - specific sequence tags . fig1 provides a general depiction of various aspects and embodiments of the invention in this regard , and the figure is discussed by way of illustration below with reference to sequencing dna from different samples . a plurality of samples ( s 1 , s 2 , through s j ) is shown topmost in the figure . each sample is comprised of a plurality of polynucleotides ( p 1 - 1 to p 1 - n1 in s 1 ; p 2 - 1 to p 2 - n2 in s2 ; through p j - 1 to p j - nj ). the polynucleotides in each sample are labeled separately with a tag polynucleotide sequence , all the polynucleotides in a given sample being tagged ( in this illustration ) with a single tag sequence , designated in the figure as t 1 for s 1 , t 2 for s 2 , through t j for s j . the individual tagged polynucleotides are denoted accordingly . the tagged polynucleotides in each sample are designated collectively , for each sample , t 1 s 1 , t 2 s 2 through t j s j . the tagged polynucleotides from the samples are mixed together to form a mixture , designated m i . the mixture is sequenced typically by a parallel sequencing method . the tag sequences are identified in the data thus obtained . the sequences are grouped by tag . the sequences from the individual samples are thereby identified . in embodiments tags are 3 to 30 , 4 to 25 , 4 to 20 base long sequences . in embodiments the tags are 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 nucleotides long or any combination thereof . in embodiments there are 1 - 6 , 6 - 12 , 10 - 15 , 10 - 20 , 15 - 25 , 20 - 40 , 25 - 50 , 25 - 75 , 50 - 100 , 50 - 150 , 100 - 200 , 100 - 250 , 50 - 250 , 100 - 500 , 500 - 1 , 000 , 100 - 1 , 000 , 500 - 5 , 000 , 100 - 10 , 000 , 1 , 000 - 25 , 000 , 500 - 50 , 000 , 100 - 100 , 000 , 1 - 1 , 000 , 000 or more samples , tagged , respectively , with 1 - 6 , 6 - 12 , 10 - 15 , 10 - 20 , 15 - 25 , 20 - 40 , 25 - 50 , 25 - 75 , 50 - 100 , 50 - 150 , 100 - 200 , 100 - 250 , 50 - 250 , 100 - 500 , 500 - 1 , 000 , 100 - 1 , 000 , 500 - 5 , 000 , 100 - 10 , 000 , 1 , 000 - 25 , 000 , 500 - 50 , 000 , 100 - 100 , 000 , 1 - 1 , 000 , 000 or more different tags . in embodiments the sequences are determined without the use of gel electrophoresis . in embodiments the sequences are determined without the use of transfer of sequences from a gel onto a membrane or a filter for hybridization . in embodiments , sequences are determined by a parallel sequencing method . in embodiments the sequences are determined by pyrosequencing , sequencing by synthesis , hybridization sequencing , subtractive sequencing , pore sequencing or direct read sequencing . in embodiments the tags are incorporated into polynucleotides in samples for sequencing by a step of ligation and / or by a step of amplification . in embodiments the tags are comprised in primers for pcr amplification , transcription amplification , rolling circle amplification , or amplification by qβ replicase . in embodiments the tags are comprised in emulsion pcr adapters and primers for amplification . in embodiments the tags are incorporated by a step of cloning into a vector . in embodiments the samples are microbial community samples . in embodiments the samples are clinical samples . in embodiments the samples are environmental samples . in embodiments the samples are samples for snp analysis . in embodiments the samples are samples for genotyping . in embodiments the sequences are determined in one or more picotiter plates . in embodiments the samples are fragmented genomic dnas . in embodiments the samples are fragmented bacterial genomic dna , archae genomic dna , fungal genomic dna , eukaryotic genomic dna , chloroplast dna , and / or mitochondrial dna . in embodiments the samples are cdnas . in embodiments the samples are eukaryotic cdna , bacterial cdna , archae cdna , and / or fungal cdna . in embodiments the tags are incorporated by a step of ligation and / or by a step of amplification . in embodiments the samples are for any one or more of detecting , monitoring , profiling , prognosticating , and / or diagnosing a disorder , disease , or the like . in embodiments the samples are for analyzing the composition , diversity , stability , dynamics , and / or changes in agricultural , food , biosecurity , veterinary , clinical , ecological , zoological , oceanological , and / or any other sample comprising one or more polynucleotides . in embodiments the sequences are determined in wells of a titer plate . in embodiments the sequences are determined in one or more picotiter plates having a mask . in embodiments the sequences are determined in one more picotiter plates having a mask , wherein the mask defines 2 , 4 , 8 , 16 , 32 , 64 or more compartments . by way of illustration to a 454 picotiter plate , in embodiments there are about 120 , 000 templates / plate and the read length averages about 250 bases per template . in embodiments relating thereto there are 10 tags of 4 bases per 1 / 16 plate , 160 tags total , an average of about 750 templates per tag ( and per sample ), and about 187 , 500 bases sequenced per tag ( and per sample ). in embodiments there are about 260 , 000 templates / plate and the read length averages about 250 bases per template . in embodiments relating thereto , there are 12 tags of 4 bases per ⅛ plate , 96 samples total , an average of about 2 , 708 templates per tag ( and per sample ) and about 677 , 083 bases of sequence per tag ( and per sample ). in embodiments there are about 400 , 000 templates / plate and the read length averages about 250 bases per template . in embodiments relating thereto , there are 96 tags of 6 bases for 96 samples per plate , about 4 , 166 templates per tag ( and per sample ) and about 1 , 041 , 666 bases of sequence per tag ( and per sample ). in embodiments the tags are 10 base long sequences , there are 192 different tags , and the samples are analyzed in microtiter plate format . in embodiments the invention provides algorithms for deconvolving , from a mixture of sequences from two or more samples , the sequences of the samples in the mixture by identifying sample - specific tags in the sequences , grouping the sequences by the tags thus identified , thereby grouping together the sequence from each of said samples , apart from one another . in embodiments the invention provides algorithms for deconvolving , from a mixture of sequences from two or more samples , the sequences of the samples in the mixture by identifying sample - specific tags in sequences , as follows : 1 . read all sequence reads into an array ; 2 . search the beginning of each sequence read and identify the tag ; 3 . build an associative array linking tag with sequence read ; 4 . sort the keys for the associate array ; 5 . associate each key with the corresponding sample ; 6 . pool all sequence reads for each sample ; 7 . analyze each sample separately . 8 . normalize the abundance of each component within each samples with respect to the total reads within that sample . in embodiments the algorithm can be implemented in any programming language . in embodiments the algorithm is implemented in c , c ++, java , fortran , or basic . in embodiments the algorithm is implemented as a perl script . in embodiments the invention provides kits for multiplex sequencing as described herein , comprising a set of primers and / or adapters , wherein each primer and / or adapter in said set comprises a tag sequence , a primer sequence and / or an emulsion pcr adapter . in embodiments the primers and / or adapters further comprise a moiety for immobilization . in embodiments the primers and / or adapters comprise biotin . in embodiments the primers and / or adapters in the set comprise all tag sequences defined by 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , or 8 base polynucleotide sequences , wherein said primers and / or adapters comprising different tag sequences are disposed in containers separate from one another . in embodiments there are 1 - 5 , 3 - 10 , 5 - 15 , 10 - 25 , 20 - 50 , 25 - 75 , 50 - 100 , 50 - 150 , 100 - 200 , 150 - 500 , 250 - 750 , 100 - 1000 , or more different tag sequences disposed separately from one another , so as to be useful for uniquely tagging said number of different samples . in embodiments the primers and / or adapters are suitable for use as 454 life sciences amplification adapters and / or primers . in embodiments the primers and / or adapters further comprise any one or more of a primer sequence for any one or more of a 16s rrna sequence , an 18s rrna sequence , an its sequence , a mitochondrial sequence , a microsatellite sequence , a metabolic enzyme sequence , a genetic disease sequence , and / or any other sequence for amplification or analysis . the present invention is additionally described by way of the following illustrative , non - limiting examples . 454 life sciences , a subsidiary of roche diagnostics , provides a device for pyrosequencing approximately 100 , 000 , 000 bases of about 400 , 000 different templates in a single run on a single picotiter plate . the company also provides masks that allows for the processing 2 , 4 , 8 , or 16 different samples on one plate . at maximum capacity using the masked plate , the system provides about 1 million bases of sequence data on about 4 , 000 templates for each of 16 samples . the general process of sequencing using the 454 system is generally as follows : isolate dna ; optionally fragment the dna ; optionally render the dna double stranded ; ligate the dna to adaptors ; separate the strands of the dsdna , bind the ssdna to beads under conditions that result in a preponderance of beads that have either no dna molecule bound to them or a single molecule of dna bound to them ; capture the beads in individual droplets of an emulsion of a pcr reaction mix in oil ; carry out a pcr reaction on the emulsion - encapsulated bead - dnas ( whereby amplification products are captured on the beads ); distribute the amplification products into picoliter wells so that there is either no bead in a well or one bead ; and carry out pyrosequencing on all the beads in all the wells in parallel . 454 life sciences , a subsidiary of roche diagnostics , provides a device for pyrosequencing approximately 100 , 000 , 000 bases of sequence for about 400 , 000 different templates in a single run on a single picotiter plate . at maximum capacity using the plate , the system provides about 10 million bases of sequence data for each of about 4 , 000 templates for each of 96 multitagged samples . in this example the 96 tags are 6 bases in length and are used along with 6 bases of the forward or reverse primer to identify the reads that belong with each of the 96 individual samples ( see fig2 ). various aspects and embodiments of the invention herein described are illustrated by way of the following general example relating to “ ecogenomic ” analysis of microbial diversity in biological samples . the ability to quantify the number and kinds of microorganisms within a community is fundamental to the understanding of the structure and function of an ecosystem , as discussed in , for instance , pace 1997 and theron and cloete 2000 . traditionally , the analysis of microbial communities has been conducted using microbiological techniques , but these techniques are limited . for instance they are not useful for the many organisms that cannot be cultivated ( ritchie , schutter et al . 2000 ; spring , schulze et al . 2000 ). even for those organisms that can be cultured , these techniques provide little information with which to identify individual microbes or characterize their physiological traits . ( morris , bardin et al . 2002 ). recent advances in molecular techniques have overcome some of these disadvantages , and have enabled the identification of many more taxa in microbial communities than traditional microbial techniques . these advances have provided considerable insight into the expression of key functions in species in microbial communities . ( pace 1997 ; suzuki 1998 ; amann 2000 ; frischer , danforth et al . 2000 ; ritchie , schutter et al . 2000 ; spring , schulze et al . 2000 ). among these molecular techniques are denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis ( dgge ), temperature gradient gel electrophoresis ( tgge ), temporal temperature gradient gel electrophoresis ( ttge ), terminal - restriction fragment length polymorphism ( t - rflp ), single strand conformation polymorphism ( sscp ), and length heterogeneity pcr ( lh - pcr ) ( frischer , danforth et al . 2000 ; theron and cloete 2000 ; mills , fitzgerald et al . 2003 ; seviour , mino et al . 2003 ; klaper and thomas 2004 ). among these , lh - pcr is probably the best technique for fingerprinting . it is inexpensive , fast , and can be used routinely to screen several hundred samples a day . it is useful as a routine survey tool that can be used to monitor the dynamics of natural soil microbial communities , and to quickly identify samples of interest by pco analysis . lh - pcr has been used to extensively assess natural variation in bacterial communities by profiling the amplified variable regions of 16s rrna genes in mixed microbial population samples , using page . ( see mills 2000 ; litchfield and gillevet 2002 ; lydell , dowell et al . 2004 ). the lh - pcr products of the individual species in the population give rise to distinct bands in the gels . the “ peak area ” of each band is proportional to the abundance of the species in the community . lh - pcr of 16s rrna variable regions has been used quite successfully to estimate species diversity in bacterioplankton communities , in particular . ( see suzuki , rappe et al . 1998 ; ritchie , schutter et al . 2000 ). community functionality cannot be determined directly from 16s rrna clone data , however , it must be inferred from the data by phylogenetic analysis . furthermore , lh - pcr and other fingerprinting technologies , while powerful tools for monitoring population dynamics , cannot identify individual species in a community . for this , fingerprinting investigations must be followed up by library construction , cloning , sequencing , and phylogenetic analysis . ( fitzgerald 1999 ; mccraig 1999 ; spring , schulze et al . 2000 ; theron and cloete 2000 ; litchfield and gillevet 2002 ; bowman and mccuaig 2003 ; kang and mills 2004 ; eckburg , bik et al . 2005 ). identifying species of a fingerprinting study , thus , is a considerable undertaking that is inconvenient , time - consuming , expensive and subject to technical limitations . grouping samples can , to some extent , reduce the cost , time , and expense of such analyses . for instance , pco analysis of lh - pcr data can be used to group samples with similar profiles for batch cloning and sequencing . combining the samples this way reduces the time , expense , and work involved in analyzing the samples . sequencing of at least 300 random clones is required to identify the bacterial components of the pooled sample down to 1 % of the total bacterial populations in typical samples . this level of resolution is similar to that of alh fingerprinting . originally a novel approach , pooling similar samples prior to cloning and sequencing has proven to be robust and effective . in classic community studies in the literature ( eckburg , bik et al . 2005 ), environmental samples are assayed independently . then the clone sequence data from specific classes / groups are statistically analyzed usually using some sort of averaging metric . analyses of this type can be extremely costly , especially if the clone libraries are exhaustively analyzed , something that typically involves sequencing thousands of clones . moreover , for the “ averaging ” process to be valid , as required for comparing the mixed populations , the samples must be pooled in equal proportions . while simple in principle , in reality , it is difficult to accomplish and , even if accomplished , impossible to verify . a new technique , based on pyrosequencing , offers advantages that overcome a variety of these drawbacks of the fingerprinting technologies mentioned above . the method is implemented on an instrument sold by 454 life sciences , inc ., a subsidiary of curagen sciences , inc ., using reagents provided by the same company . in addition , 454 life sciences provides a custom service for pyrosequencing . in this technology , individual dna molecules are amplified on beads by pcr in individual droplets in an oil - in - water emulsion . beads then are deposited individually in wells of a picotiter plate . the sequences of all the dnas in the wells are determined in parallel by pyrosequencing . ( see venter , levy et al . 2003 ; margulies , egholm et al . 2005 ; poinar , schwarz et al . 2006 ). in a typical run , there are about 200 , 000 templates per plate , an average read length of about 100 bases from each template , and a single - plate run generates about 20 million bases of sequence in a single four hour run . although the technology greatly increases throughput over previous methods , it is expensive . in particular , the cost per plate is too high for it to be economically practical to carry out many analyses . to decrease cost , masks can be used that divide a plate into 16 independent sample zones , so that one plate can be used to process 16 different samples , either at the same time or independently . each 1 / 16 zone provides about 1 , 000 , 000 bases of sequence data from about 10 , 000 different templates . while this reduces the cost per sample , the expenses associated with using this technology remain undesirably high . various aspects and embodiments of the present invention can be used to further reduce the cost per sample of this technology ( as well as other techniques , as described elsewhere herein ). the use of multitagging techniques ( referred to as , among other things , “ multitag process ”) to the genomic analysis of bacterial populations in according with certain aspects and embodiments of the invention , notably high coverage sequencing of bacterial communities , is referred to herein as “ multitag ecogenomics ” and also as “ multitag ecogenomic analysis .” ( several publications use the term “ multiplex pyrosequencing ” ( pourmand , elahi et al . 2002 ) to refer to generating a composite signal from multiple targets that is read as a signature for a specific sample . the term is not used to refer to tag - based multiplexing in which sequences from different samples in a mixture are determined and then deconvolved from the mixed sequencing data using sample - specific tags incorporated during amplification reactions .) as described below the multitag process in a relatively simple series of steps accomplishes everything that otherwise would require not only community fingerprinting analysis , but also all of the cloning and sequencing processes previously required for high coverage ecogenomic analysis using conventional techniques . by way of illustration , the following example describes the use of multitag ecogenomic analysis of variable regions of common genes using tagged universal primers for high coverage analysis of several microbial community samples all at the same time . the analysis is carried out much as described in general above , and further elaborated on in detail below . briefly , short tags are added to the 5 ′ ends of the forward and reverse pcr primers normally used for community analysis . these tags can be placed between the emulsion pcr adapters and the pct primers ( see fig2 ). a different tag is attached to the primers for each of the samples to be combined . for instance primers that span a variable region of 16s rrna genes may be used for analysis of bacterial and archael communities . 16s rrna - specific primers with 4 base tags are set out in the table 1 below . likewise primers that span a variable region of an its gene may be used for analysis of fungal communities . it will be appreciated that the choice of these specific primers is not exclusive , and that a wide variety of other primers suitable to other target regions for amplification may be employed in much the same manner as descried herein for the 16s and its genes . thus , any gene of interest can be used that provides conserved primer sites across a community , and sufficient variation in the region between the primers for the desired resolution of individual species . thus , for example , genes specific to functional pathways such as anaerobic methane oxidation , or sulphur reduction can serve as targets for the amplification reaction , as well as 16s rrna sequences . table 1 shows a 16s rrna - specific primer with a variety of 4 base tag sequences attached . as described herein such primers are useful for amplifying 16s rrnas in several samples that can then be sequenced together . the 16s rrna in each sample is amplified using a different tag , but the same 16s primer sequence . the amplified rrna sequences from the samples are combined and sequenced together . the rrna sequences from the different samples then are identified and sorted out by their 4 base tag sequence plus the first 4 bases of each primer . it is to be appreciated that the sequences downstream of the shared 16s primer sequence will differ among the samples , as well as the tag sequence . in each case , the samples are individually amplified . the resulting amplicons comprise the primer sequences including the tags . since unique tags are used for each sample , the tags in the amplicons from each sample will be different . the amplified dnas are then pooled and sequenced by pyrosequencing as described above . the sequence data from a run is analyzed , in part , by grouping together all the sequences having the same tag . in this way , the sequences from each sample are demultiplexed from the sequencing data obtained from the mixture . the working of the invention in this regard is illustrated by the following simulation , carried out using conventionally obtained population data from cold seep samples . the algorithm for sequence analysis uses a perl script to extract the first 100 bases of sequence . it then analyzes all the 100 bases sequences using a custom rdp perl script . the script works as follows : 1 . read all sequence reads into an associate array ( hash 1 ); 2 . extract 100 base subsequences from the beginning of each sequence read ; 3 . create an associate array ( hash 2 ) of the sequences ; 4 . perform a blast search of the rdp database with hash 1 ; 5 . perform a blast search of the rdp database with hash 2 ; 6 . compare the identifications for the original sequence ( hash 1 ) and the subsequence ( hash 2 ); 7 . compile a list of similar identifications for hash 1 and hash 2 ; 8 . compile a list of different identifications for hash 1 and hash 2 ; 9 . calculate the percentage of similar identifications . as shown below , there is virtually no difference at the class level in the microbial diversity generated by the sequencing simulation and that derived directly from the 16s rrna sequences in the data base . inflammatory bowel diseases ( ibd or ibds ), namely ulcerative colitis ( uc ) and crohn &# 39 ; s disease ( cd ), are chronic , lifelong , relapsing illnesses , affecting close to 1 million americans and costing approximately $ 2 billion per year to the us healthcare system . ibds are of unknown cause , have no cure , and are increasing in incidence . the natural course of these diseases is characterized by periods of quiescence ( inactive disease ) interspersed with flare - ups ( active disease ). it is now widely accepted that flare - ups of ibd are due to a dysregulated inflammatory reaction to abnormal intestinal microflora dysbiosis ), however . specific changes in the microflora of ibd patients that might cause these diseases remain unknown . narrow searches for a single pathogen that causes ibd have been unsuccessful . ( see guarner and malagelada 2003 ). studies of small bacterial groups have yielded ambiguous results . ( see schultz and sartor 2000 ). only recently have studies of large sets of bacterial flora been attempted . ( see eckburg , bik , et al . 2005 ),. improving our knowledge about gi tract microflora has the potential to revolutionize ibd treatment . development of real - time methods to study microfloral changes may lead to diagnostic tools to predict flare - ups , and to targeted , safe treatments for ibd . the key requirement to understanding dysbiosis in polymicrobial diseases is for a method to interrogate widely the microflora in numerous control and disease samples to identify dynamic trends in species composition associated with health and disease progression . in classic community studies ( eckburg , bik , et al . 2005 ) environmental samples are assayed independently and then the clone sequence data from specific classes / groups are statistically analyzed usually using some sort of averaging metric . this can be extremely costly , especially if the clone libraries are exhaustively analyzed ( i . e ., 10 , 000 clones per sample ). to improve throughput and reduce cost , amplicon length heterogeneity pcr ( alh - pcr ) has been used to study the gut microflora . it offers a rapid way of screening complex microbial communities , allowing for easy fingerprinting of microfloral changes . the lh - pcr fingerprinting is inexpensive and fast , with the ability to screen several hundred samples a day . it can be used as a routine survey tool to monitor the dynamics of natural soil microbial communities or to quickly identify samples of interest using pco analysis . pco analysis has been used to group samples with similar profiles , allowing them to be pooled for cloning and sequencing . this greatly reduces the cost of analyzing multiple samples , particularly when the analysis requires sequencing at least 300 random clones to identify bacterial components of the sample down to 1 % representation in the total population ( which is the resolution limit for alh fingerprinting ). pooling similar samples before cloning and sequencing has proved to be quite robust . however , equal amounts of the pcr product from each sample must be pooled or the results will be skewed . multitag pyrosequencing is a novel pyrosequencing technology that allows many community samples to be sequenced together at high coverage without the necessity for fingerprinting , cloning , or the purification and separation techniques required by conventional methods for analyzing microbial communities , as described herein above . multitag sequencing is more efficient , faster , and less costly than other methods . by way of illustration , multitag pyrosequencing can be carried out using a set of specific tags on the end of standard universal small ribosomal sub - unit (“ ssu ”) rrna primers ( see table 1 ). a different set of the tagged primers is used to amplify the ssu rrna in each different environmental sample ( fig2 — step 1 ). the pcr amplicons from all the samples are pooled . emulsion pcr is performed and the amplicons arising from each molecule are captured on their respective beads . following amplification , the beads are distributed into the wells of a picoliter plate ( fig2 — step 2 ). the sequences , including the tagged sequences , of the amplicons on each bead are determined by pyrosequencing ( fig2 — step 3 ). a perl script or other suitable program is used to sort the sequence information using the tags and primer sequence as a key . sequences with the same tags are identified thereby with their respective sample . the bacteria species in each sample then are identified by matching the ssu rrna sequences to entries in the database of the ribosomal database project ( either rdp 8 . 1 or rdp 9 . 0 ). the normalized frequency with which a bacteria is thus identified in a given sample is indicative of its relative representation in the microbial community . histograms based on these frequency determinations can be used for the non - parametric analysis of dysbiotic shifts involved in disease states . for example , fig3 depicts the results of such an experiment in which six control , ten crohns , and eight ulcerative colitis mucosal samples were analyzed by multitag pyrosequencing . e ach of the segments in the stacked histogram bars represents the normalized abundance of that specific taxa in a specific sample . in this experiment , identification of the taxa was performed using blast analysis of the rdp 8 . 1 database . it can be seen that some taxa ( i . e . bacillus fragilis subgroup and rumanococcus gnavus subgroup ) are present in the same abundance in both control and disease states . other taxa , such as clostridium leptum are more dominant in ulcerative colitis , while others ( i . e . the gloeothece gloeocapsa subgroup ) are indicators of dysbiosis in the disease state . however , the standard 454 life science process using a ligation step to link the emulsion pcr adapters to the pcr amplicons and produces numerous artifacts in the quantitation of the abundances of each taxa in the samples . in the results displayed in fig3 , we algorithmically removed chimeras , reverse reads and truncated products and filtered the data to remove all taxa that were represented by less than 5 % abundance . only then were we able to see a correlation with disease state and specific microbial taxa . distortion of the distribution of components of a microbial community by directly ligating emulsion pcr adapters onto pcr amplicons . in one experiment we used tagged pcr primers to amplify the components in duplicate microbial community samples , ligated the emulsion pcr adapters to these samples , and then subjected these samples to separate pyrosequencing runs . the amplicons are routinely run on an agilent bioanalyzer system before and after ligation to quantitate the mixture before emulsion pcr . fig4 depicts a sample run on the bioanalyzer before and after direct ligation and clearly shows that the ligation step has drastically altered the distribution of the amplicons . additionally , we compared the normalized abundances of the component taxa identified by the multitag process after direct ligation of the emulsion pcr adapters . in this experiment , identification of the taxa was performed using a bayesian analysis of the rdp 9 . 0 database . we can se in fig5 that abundances of the forward and reverse primers for various taxa are different within a sample and between duplicate samples . in several cases , we are missing entire families in the comparison between duplicates . table 3 summarizes the differences between the forward primers and the reverse primers of the duplicate samples and it is clearly stochastic with no predictable pattern . we hypothesize that this differential ligation efficiency could be due to a number of factors such as internal structure in the amplicons or biases in the terminal nucleotide of either the adapter or amplicon . each of the following publications is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety , particularly as to the above - 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