Global distribution of Patescibacteria in WWTPs Raw sequence reads

The abundance and diversity of Patescibacteria are often underestimated by amplicon-based studies due to the low coverage of commonly used PCR primers for this highly divergent bacterial phylum. Here we developed a modified primer pair target to the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene, which can largely improve the coverage of Patescibacteria by amplicon sequencing while being able to detect similar diversity and abundance of other taxa. We then applied the modified primer pairs to depict the global distribution of Patescibacteria in WWTPs. Our results indicate this modified primer pair is generally better suited for microbial community studies in WWTPs and likely also other habitats. Sequencing was performed at the Joint Microbiome Facility of the Medical University of Vienna and the University of Vienna under the project ID JMF-2204-03.