Shotgun metagenomics is used to analyze bacteria by sequencing of random fragments of their DNA. The resulting data contains however high levels of noise and unwanted artifacts. In this study, CARe researchers have compared different methods for correction ('normalization') of data from shotgun metagenomics. The results show that the choice of normalization method can greatly affect the end results. In particular, choosing an unsuitable approach may result unacceptably levels of false positives and incorrect biological interpretation. The study also highlights normalization methods that have an overall high and stable performance.
Reference to the study:
Pereira MB, Wallroth M, Jonsson V, Kristiansson E. (2018). Comparison of normalization methods for the analysis of metagenomic gene abundance data, BMC Genomics 19(274). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-018-4637-6