Evaluating and Improving Small Subunit rRNA PCR Primer Coverage for Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukaryotes Using Metagenomes from Global Ocean Surveys

Abstract

PCR amplification and sequencing of marker genes are a low-cost technique for monitoring prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbial communities across space and time but will work optimally only if environmental organisms match PCR primer sequences exactly. In this study, we evaluated how well primers match globally distributed short-read oceanic metagenomes.