Next-generation sequencing technologies have revolutionized the methods for studying microbial ecology by enabling high-resolution community profiling. However, the use of these technologies in unraveling the plant microbiome remains challenging. Many bacterial 16S rDNA primer pairs also exhibit high affinity for non-target DNA such as plastid (mostly chloroplast) DNA and mitochondrial DNA. The...

BACKGROUND Microorganisms comprise the majority of living organisms on our planet. For many years, exploration of the composition of microbial communities has been performed through the PCR-based study of the small subunit rRNA gene due to its high conservation across the domains of life. The application of this method has resulted in the discovery of many unexpected evolutionary lineages. Howe...

Introduction Acetobacter pasteurianus is among the major bacteria responsible for acetic fermentation and gives the characteristic taste of vinegar, can be found as a contaminant of wine production industry. In industrial fermentation is frequent contamination by lactic acid bacteria such as Lactobacillus fermentum that competes with the yeast for nutrients and inhibiting their growth, slow the...

Canine anaplasmosis is regarded as an infection by Anaplasma platys rather than zoonotic Anaplasma phagocytophilum in subtropical areas based on the assumption that the common dog tick species is Rhipicephalus sanguineus, which transmits E. canis and presumably A. platys. We investigated asymptomatic dogs and dog ticks from 16 communities in Nantou County, Taiwan to identify common dog tick spe...

CDC group IV c-2, an environmental gram-negative bacillus recently proposed for inclusion in the genus Ralstonia, has been isolated in several human infections. Biochemical characterization and 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequencing with phylogenetic analysis were used to characterize eight clinical isolates and four type strains. Other typing tools, such as pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE)...

BACKGROUND The miniaturised and portable DNA sequencer MinION™ has been released to the scientific community within the framework of an early access programme to evaluate its application for a wide variety of genetic approaches. This technology has demonstrated great potential, especially in genome-wide analyses. In this study, we tested the ability of the MinION™ system to perform amplicon seq...