[Strategy of selecting 16S rRNA hypervariable regions for metagenome-phylogenetic marker genes based analysis]

The advent of next generation sequencing technology enables parallel analysis of the whole microbial community from multiple samples. Particularly, sequencing 16S rRNA hypervariable tags has become the most efficient and cost-effective method for assessing microbial diversity. Due to its short read length of the 2nd-generation sequencing methods that cannot cover the full 16S rRNA genomic region, specific hypervariable regions or V-regions must be selected to act as the proxy. Over the past decade, selection of V-regions has not been consistent in assessing microbial diversity. Here we evaluated the current strategies of selecting 16S rRNA hypervariable regions for surveying microbial diversity. The environmental condition was considered as one of the important factors for selection of 16S rRNA hypervariable regions. We suggested that a pilot study to test different V-regions is required in bacterial diversity studies based on 16S rRNA genes.