Microbial Diversity Analysis Training Workshop

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December 11, 2023
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ACTIONr Training Workshop

Microbial Diversity Analysis with High-throughput Sequencing of PCR Amplicons

03-09 January 2024

@ Department of Biochemistry & Biotechnology, University of Thessaly, Viopolis Campus, Larissa, Greece & online

workshop_uth_poster_training-workshop_Microbial-Diversity-Analysis-with-High-throughput-Sequencing-of-PCR-Amplicons_03-09-Jan-2023

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Training Workshop Overview

The enormous microbial diversity found in most habitats is currently acknowledged. Sequencing of amplicons of phylogenetic marker genes currently comprises the dominant methodology for analyzing microbial diversity in such habitats, owing to its high-resolution ability and its capacity to capture most of the existing diversity as opposed to methodologies of the past era. During the workshop, the students will be introduced to past and current methodologies for studying environmental microbial diversity, building the case around the need for high throughput sequencing of phylogenetic marker gene amplicons (currently, commonly referred as “metabarcoding” methodology) in such studies. A thorough description of all necessary steps for designing and performing microbial diversity analysis with metabarcoding will be provided. Students will also be introduced to computational tools of the field of big-data science, like the R programming/statistical environment, necessary for handling the volume of sequencing data generated in such approaches. Then, they will be walked through strategies in statistical analysis, suitable for extracting important and reliable information from “noisy” environmental datasets. Finally, the students will obtain hands on experience with the aforementioned tools and statistical strategies that will facilitate the design and execution of their future experiments.

Who is this course for?

Young/not-so-young researchers interested in the fields of (Molecular) Microbial Ecology and Environmental Microbiology.

What will I learn?

Familiarize with basic and advanced concepts of diversity analysis with metabarcoding
Obtain basic knowledge about the R platform
Be able to use R for performing all necessary quality control and bioinformatics steps during the processing of metabarcoding data
Be able to perform basic descriptive statistical analysis on metabarcoding datasets
Comprehend important strategies for winnowing primary datasets to shake-off environmental noise and extract important for phenotypic traits microbial taxa