Metagenetic analysis of stream community composition based on environmental DNA

A survey of environmental DNA was performed in Tunison Creek downstream of the USGS Tunison Aquatic Laboratory. The goal of the survey was to characterize the source ecological community at multiple trophic or taxonomic levels by associating DNA fragments with reference databases. Three taxonomically informative genetic loci were used: the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase 1 locus, the mitochondrial 12S ribosomal locus, and the bacterial/organellar 16S ribosomal locus. The data set includes a list of sample and sequence accessions residing in the National Center for Biotechnology Information databases, which provide the raw data for analysis or re-use. The data also includes the representative sequences of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and their abundance and taxonomic assignment, which are the primary endpoints of the data collection.