Accounting for 16S rRNA copy number prediction uncertainty and its implications in bacterial diversity analyses

Abstract
16S rRNA gene copy number (16S GCN) varies among bacterial species and this variation introduces potential biases to microbial diversity analyses using 16S rRNA read counts. To correct the biases, methods have been developed to predict 16S GCN. A recent study suggests that the prediction uncertainty can be so great that copy number correction is not justified in practice. Here we develop RasperGade16S, a novel method and software to better model and capture the inherent uncertainty in 16S GCN prediction. Click, to read full publication.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37301942/
Yingnan Gao, Martin Wu