DNA extraction protocols do not cause differences in ant-associated bacterial 16S rRNA community profiles. Targeted Locus (Loci). ant metagenome

In this study, we examine several commonly used protocols for extracting bacterial DNA from ants to assess the biases inherent in each method. Bacterial community composition recovered using Illumina 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing was not detectably biased by any method. Our results suggest that minor modifications to standard extraction protocols can and should be implemented when standard methods are suboptimal for particular sample types.