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Updated: Jun 9, 2026

Guided Protocol for Fecal Microbial Characterization by 16S rRNA-Amplicon Sequencing

Guided Protocol for Fecal Microbial Characterization by 16S rRNA-Amplicon Sequencing

Published on: March 19, 2018

STREAMS guidelines: standards for technical reporting in environmental and host-associated microbiome studies.

Julia M Kelliher^1,2,3, Chloe Mirzayi⁴, Sarah R Bordenstein^5,6

¹New Mexico Consortium, Los Alamos, NM, USA. jkelliher@lanl.gov.

Nature Microbiology

|December 1, 2025

Summary

New STREAMS guidelines standardize reporting for environmental and non-human microbiome studies. These standards enhance data sharing and reproducibility in complex multi-omics research.

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Last Updated: Jun 9, 2026

Guided Protocol for Fecal Microbial Characterization by 16S rRNA-Amplicon Sequencing

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Tick Microbiome Characterization by Next-Generation 16S rRNA Amplicon Sequencing

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Microbiota Analysis Using Two-step PCR and Next-generation 16S rRNA Gene Sequencing

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Published on: October 15, 2019

Area of Science:

Microbiology
Bioinformatics
Environmental Science

Background:

Microbiome research generates complex multi-omics data, posing challenges for knowledge sharing.
Existing guidelines like STORMS focus on human microbiome studies.
Standardized reporting is crucial for reproducibility and data integration.

Purpose of the Study:

Introduce the Standards for Technical Reporting in Environmental and Host-associated Microbiome Studies (STREAMS) guidelines.
Expand reporting standards beyond human studies to environmental, synthetic, and non-human host-associated microbiomes.
Provide a machine-actionable framework for reporting microbiome study details.

Main Methods:

Developed consensus-based guidelines through input from 248 researchers across 28 countries.
Expanded upon the existing STORMS checklist.
Included 67 items covering study information, experimental design, and analytical methods.

Main Results:

The STREAMS guidelines offer comprehensive reporting standards for diverse microbiome research.
The guidelines are designed to be standardized and machine-actionable.
Case studies demonstrate the practical application of STREAMS.

Conclusions:

STREAMS guidelines enhance the reporting and review of environmental and non-human microbiome studies.
These guidelines promote data standardization and interoperability.
STREAMS will serve as a living resource for the microbiome research community.