Here's my poster for #ABACBS2023!

We compared different #eDNA taxonomic classifiers across different simulated datasets of 12S and 16S metabarcoding data.

MMSeqs2 generally 'wins' closely followed by BLAST.
With exclusion databases it becomes apparent that standard Kraken2 produces many, many false positives. With some families like snappers, all classifiers can't assign more than ~30% of sequences.

(not shown is COI, where MMSeqs2 and Mothur are working best)

Thanks @Helmholtz_HZI for the nice press release to accompany our study out now in @CurrentBiology: https://www.helmholtz-hzi.de/en/news-events/news/view/article/complete/dna-abstrich-von-blaettern-zeigt-enorme-vielfalt-der-regenwaldbewohner/

If you are a science communicator and have questions or are interested in covering our work - please get in touch! #SciComm #eDNA #PressRelease #NewPaper #Animals @Helmholtz_HIOH @unigreifswald

Detecting a vast diversity of rainforest animals by swabbing their DNA from leaves

Monitoring wildlife species present in specific areas is a critical first step to estimating the risk of transmission of infectious diseases to humans

^{Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research}