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Updated: Aug 15, 2026

Efficient Nucleic Acid Extraction and 16S rRNA Gene Sequencing for Bacterial Community Characterization
Published on: April 14, 2016
A tool to assess the mock community samples in 16S rRNA gene-based microbiota profiling studies
Sudarshan A Shetty1,2, Jolanda Kool1, Susana Fuentes1
1Center for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Antonie van Leeuwenhoeklaan 9, Bilthoven 3721 MA, Netherlands.
Abstract:
Inclusion and investigation of technical controls in microbiome sequencing studies is important for understanding technical biases and errors. Here, we present chkMocks, a general R-based tool that allows researchers to compare the composition of mock communities that are processed along with samples to their theoretical composition. A visual comparison between experimental and theoretical community composition and their correlation is provided for researchers to assess the quality of their sample processing workflows.
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