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The Earth Microbiome Project Consortium

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-2017

Department

Biological Sciences

School

Biological, Environmental, and Earth Sciences

Abstract

Our growing awareness of the microbial world's importance and diversity contrasts starkly with our limited understanding of its fundamental structure. Despite recent advances in DNA sequencing, a lack of standardized protocols and common analytical frameworks impedes comparisons among studies, hindering the development of global inferences about microbial life on Earth. Here we present a meta-analysis of microbial community samples collected by hundreds of researchers for the Earth Microbiome Project. Coordinated protocols and new analytical methods, particularly the use of exact sequences instead of clustered operational taxonomic units, enable bacterial and archaeal ribosomal RNA gene sequences to be followed across multiple studies and allow us to explore patterns of diversity at an unprecedented scale. The result is both a reference database giving global context to DNA sequence data and a framework for incorporating data from future studies, fostering increasingly complete characterization of Earth's microbial diversity.

Comments

This article is made available through a CC BY 4.0 license. More information is available from the publisher's website: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature24621

Publication Title

Nature

Volume

551

Issue

7681

First Page

457

Last Page

463

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