Host depletion kits improve microbiome analyses in Zostera marina Raw sequence reads

All plants and animals associate with specific communities of symbiotic microorganisms. Characterizing the diversity and functions of these communities is essential for understanding their roles in host health, however such efforts are often hindered by the dominance of host-derived material in e.g., DNA extractions. Although various commercial host DNA depletion kits have been developed to overcome these challenges, they have never been systematically tested on environmental samples. This project systemically compared DNA extraction methods with and without host DNA depletion in Zostera marina samples, using 16S rRNA gene amplicon and metagenomic short-reads sequencing, to highlight the value of these techniques for uncovering novel host-associated microbial diversity in non-medical environmental samples. Sequencing was performed at the Joint Microbiome Facility of the Medical University of Vienna and the University of Vienna under the project ID JMF-2404-07.