Comparison of the performance of ITS1 and ITS2 as barcodes in amplicon-based sequencing of bioaerosols

This paper presents the performance of two eukaryotic genomic ribosomal regions, ITS1 and ITS2, in describing fungal diversity in aerosol samples using amplicon-based High-Throughput Sequencing (HTS). Composting sites, biomethanization facilities, and dairy farms, all affected by the presence of fun...

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Main Authors: Hamza Mbareche, Marc Veillette, Guillaume Bilodeau, Caroline Duchaine
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: PeerJ Inc. 2020-02-01
Series:PeerJ
Subjects:
Online Access:https://peerj.com/articles/8523.pdf
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author Hamza Mbareche
Marc Veillette
Guillaume Bilodeau
Caroline Duchaine
author_facet Hamza Mbareche
Marc Veillette
Guillaume Bilodeau
Caroline Duchaine
author_sort Hamza Mbareche
collection DOAJ
description This paper presents the performance of two eukaryotic genomic ribosomal regions, ITS1 and ITS2, in describing fungal diversity in aerosol samples using amplicon-based High-Throughput Sequencing (HTS). Composting sites, biomethanization facilities, and dairy farms, all affected by the presence of fungi, were visited to collect air samples. The amplicon-based HTS approach is a target enrichment method that relies on the amplification of a specific target using particular primers before sequencing. Thus, the results are highly dependent on the quality of amplification. For this reason, the authors of this paper used a shotgun metagenomic approach to compare its outcome with the amplicon-based method. Indeed, shotgun metagenomic does not rely on any amplification prior to sequencing, because all genes are sequenced without a specific target. In addition, culture methods were added to the analyses in biomethanization and dairy farms samples to validate their contribution to fungal diversity of aerosols. The results obtained are unequivocal towards ITS1 outperformance to ITS2 in terms of richness, and taxonomic coverage. The differential abundance analysis did demonstrate that some taxa were exclusively detected only by ITS2, and vice-versa for ITS1. However, the shotgun metagenomic approach showed a taxonomic profile more resembling to ITS1 than ITS2. Based on these results, neither of the barcodes evaluated is perfect in terms of distinguishing all species. Using both barcodes offers a broader view of the fungal aerosol population. However, with the actual knowledge, the authors strongly recommend using ITS1 as a universal fungal barcode for quick general analyses of diversity and when limited financial resources are available, primarily due its ability to capture taxonomic profiles similar to those obtained using the shotgun metagenomic. The culture comparison with amplicon-based sequencing showed the complementarity of both approaches in describing the most abundant taxa.
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spelling doaj.art-b07eded2da80402daabf0395663469f62023-12-03T10:02:37ZengPeerJ Inc.PeerJ2167-83592020-02-018e852310.7717/peerj.8523Comparison of the performance of ITS1 and ITS2 as barcodes in amplicon-based sequencing of bioaerosolsHamza Mbareche0Marc Veillette1Guillaume Bilodeau2Caroline Duchaine3Institut Universitaire de Cardiologie et de Pneumologie de Québec, Quebec City, Quebec, CanadaInstitut Universitaire de Cardiologie et de Pneumologie de Québec, Quebec City, Quebec, CanadaCanadian Food Inspection Agency, Pathogen Identification Research Lab, Ottawa, CanadaInstitut Universitaire de Cardiologie et de Pneumologie de Québec, Quebec City, Quebec, CanadaThis paper presents the performance of two eukaryotic genomic ribosomal regions, ITS1 and ITS2, in describing fungal diversity in aerosol samples using amplicon-based High-Throughput Sequencing (HTS). Composting sites, biomethanization facilities, and dairy farms, all affected by the presence of fungi, were visited to collect air samples. The amplicon-based HTS approach is a target enrichment method that relies on the amplification of a specific target using particular primers before sequencing. Thus, the results are highly dependent on the quality of amplification. For this reason, the authors of this paper used a shotgun metagenomic approach to compare its outcome with the amplicon-based method. Indeed, shotgun metagenomic does not rely on any amplification prior to sequencing, because all genes are sequenced without a specific target. In addition, culture methods were added to the analyses in biomethanization and dairy farms samples to validate their contribution to fungal diversity of aerosols. The results obtained are unequivocal towards ITS1 outperformance to ITS2 in terms of richness, and taxonomic coverage. The differential abundance analysis did demonstrate that some taxa were exclusively detected only by ITS2, and vice-versa for ITS1. However, the shotgun metagenomic approach showed a taxonomic profile more resembling to ITS1 than ITS2. Based on these results, neither of the barcodes evaluated is perfect in terms of distinguishing all species. Using both barcodes offers a broader view of the fungal aerosol population. However, with the actual knowledge, the authors strongly recommend using ITS1 as a universal fungal barcode for quick general analyses of diversity and when limited financial resources are available, primarily due its ability to capture taxonomic profiles similar to those obtained using the shotgun metagenomic. The culture comparison with amplicon-based sequencing showed the complementarity of both approaches in describing the most abundant taxa.https://peerj.com/articles/8523.pdfBioaerosolsITS1ITS2High-throughput sequencingFungiBarcodes
spellingShingle Hamza Mbareche
Marc Veillette
Guillaume Bilodeau
Caroline Duchaine
Comparison of the performance of ITS1 and ITS2 as barcodes in amplicon-based sequencing of bioaerosols
PeerJ
Bioaerosols
ITS1
ITS2
High-throughput sequencing
Fungi
Barcodes
title Comparison of the performance of ITS1 and ITS2 as barcodes in amplicon-based sequencing of bioaerosols
title_full Comparison of the performance of ITS1 and ITS2 as barcodes in amplicon-based sequencing of bioaerosols
title_fullStr Comparison of the performance of ITS1 and ITS2 as barcodes in amplicon-based sequencing of bioaerosols
title_full_unstemmed Comparison of the performance of ITS1 and ITS2 as barcodes in amplicon-based sequencing of bioaerosols
title_short Comparison of the performance of ITS1 and ITS2 as barcodes in amplicon-based sequencing of bioaerosols
title_sort comparison of the performance of its1 and its2 as barcodes in amplicon based sequencing of bioaerosols
topic Bioaerosols
ITS1
ITS2
High-throughput sequencing
Fungi
Barcodes
url https://peerj.com/articles/8523.pdf
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AT guillaumebilodeau comparisonoftheperformanceofits1andits2asbarcodesinampliconbasedsequencingofbioaerosols
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