Introducing mothur: Open-Source, Platform-Independent, Community-Supported Software for Describing and Comparing Microbial Communities

Abstract

ABSTRACT mothur aims to be a comprehensive software package that allows users to use a single piece of software to analyze community sequence data. It builds upon previous tools to provide a flexible and powerful software package for analyzing sequencing data. As a case study, we used mothur to trim, screen, and align sequences; calculate distances; assign sequences to operational taxonomic units; and describe the α and β diversity of eight marine samples previously characterized by pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA gene fragments. This analysis of more than 222,000 sequences was completed in less than 2 h with a laptop computer.

Keywords

Affiliated Institutions

• University of Michigan US
• Texas A&M University US
• Dalhousie University CA
• University of Massachusetts Amherst US
• University of Minnesota US
• University of British Columbia CA
• University of New Mexico US
• University of Warwick GB
• Louisiana State University US
• University of Ljubljana SI
• Colorado School of Mines US
• Graz University of Technology AT

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