Evaluating the impact of saponin-based host lysis on infected tissue samples indicated for bacterial metagenomic investigation

Identifying bacteria using clinical metagenomics is an up-and-coming solution in diagnostic testing. However, a common problem seen in metagenomics, particularly in tissue samples, is contamination with host /human DNA which can mask the bacterial DNA present in the sample. To minimize the impact of host DNA on the bacterial metagenomics workflow, we developed a selective lysis protocol and compared clinical metagenomic results obtained from standard (non-treated) workflow vs. host lysis workflow.