A new taxonomic framework improves the classification of microbial sequences
In short: Researchers developed an improved version of the Greengenes taxonomy to better organize the vast diversity of bacteria and archaea. By creating a 'taxonomy to tree' approach, the team successfully mapped group names from existing systems onto a new tree containing 408,315 sequences, ensuring more consistent classification for ecological and evolutionary studies.
This work matters because accurate naming is essential for interpreting large-scale metagenomic surveys, such as those mapping the human microbiome. The study used a pipeline involving tree inference and a software tool called tax2tree to merge multiple taxonomies. While the new system improved the classification of 75% of the sequences, the study is primarily a methodological development for database curation rather than an experimental trial.
Why it matters: Better classification tools are essential for accurately mapping the diverse microbial life found in our bodies and the environment.
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Sources
- Source: Research: McDonald et al. (2012). An improved Greengenes taxonomy with explicit ranks for ecological and evolutionary analyses of bacteria and archaea. The ISME journal. · cc by-nc-sa
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