Stabilized and unstabilized sampling methods exhibit differential fecal 16SrRNA microbial sequencing results: a military and veteran microbiome center for research and education (MVM-CoRE) study

This study compared two fecal sample collection methods (swab and OmniGene Gut) collected from the same bowel movement in a set of samples that were compiled from three clinical studies conducted over four years. The aim of this study was to determine: 1) if there were microbial community differences between paired swab and OmniGene samples; 2) if transit time affected microbial communities of swab and OmniGene samples; 3) if fresh frozen swab samples had microbial communities similar to their paired OmniGene samples.