Bacterial Specimen Genotyping

 

Molecular genotyping on bacterial specimen basically depends on 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequences. 16S rRNA is a component of the 30S small subunit of prokaryotic ribosomes. The genes coding for it are refered to 16S rRNA gene and due to its slow rates of evolution, they are used in reconstructing phylogenies of bacteria. Carl Woese and Sidney Fox were the first scientists employing 16S rRNA gene sequences in phylogenies. To achieve a precise delimitation of bacterial taxonomy of the specimen, Greengenes database is used for taxonomic annotation. It is a quality controlled, comprehensive 16S reference database and taxonomy based off a de novo phylogeny that provides standard operational taxonomic unit sets.