Jump to content

Participating in the free microbiome analysis (PNWMAS April meeting)


EMeyer

Recommended Posts

Sorry for the slow updates, been very busy. I believe I have all samples in hand for people from this forum. Still waiting on  a few others. 

My best update is - I am nearly done with the big cycling experiment, and have a bunch of samples in hand from that! The good news thats obvious right away is that the tanks behaved very differently in terms of nutrient cycling, so it appears I was able to avoid major problems with cross contamination. 

I'll post real updates in the next few days...

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...
On 6/9/2019 at 8:42 PM, EMeyer said:

Sorry for the slow updates, been very busy. I believe I have all samples in hand for people from this forum. Still waiting on  a few others. 

My best update is - I am nearly done with the big cycling experiment, and have a bunch of samples in hand from that! The good news thats obvious right away is that the tanks behaved very differently in terms of nutrient cycling, so it appears I was able to avoid major problems with cross contamination. 

I'll post real updates in the next few days...

Any update on this?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi all,

What a summer. I hope yours has been less hectic than mine. 

But despite having to invent several non trivial things along the way, and everything taking longer than it should (the sequencing facility took over 1 month to complete a 48 hour job!)... I have very good news. 

  • Every sample provided by the group worked. By which I mean, I was able to extract bacterial DNA, prepare sequencing libraries, produce high-quality sequences, and identify the bacteria they contained. 
  • Controls were clean - no detectable amplification. This gives us confidence the DNA we're analyzing came from your tank, not my hands. 
  • At every stage these samples and sequencing libraries passed quality control with flying colors; in several ways they were the highest quality amplicon libraries I've ever analyzed. 
  • The kinds of bacteria present in these samples were as expected. 
  • Most of the tanks share a common bacterial profile.... but there are a few interesting outliers, including a couple tanks that were noted as having problems (e.g. cyano)

 

I'm out of town for a couple days but I'll post results to the website shortly after I get back. Thats how each participant will get their results. I'll also make some posts here discussing specific questions about the data.More soon!

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the update.  I love the start up learning curve.  How it’s supposed to work is never exactly how it turns out working.  

 

If there’s value, you have my permission to discuss my sample openly.   Compare and contrast away.  

(And if you need another sample to trend over time, I’m happy to provide another any time.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, obrien.david.j said:

If there’s value, you have my permission to discuss my sample openly.

This is an interesting point.  I wonder if we could get all the PNWMAS participants to agree to having their data identified for purposes of comparison... might lead to some interesting discussion and more nuanced interpretation.  I would be game (and my tank ain't all that right now).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, albertareef said:

This is an interesting point.  I wonder if we could get all the PNWMAS participants to agree to having their data identified for purposes of comparison... might lead to some interesting discussion and more nuanced interpretation.  I would be game (and my tank ain't all that right now).

I'm fine sharing my results.  (I'm not sure if there's any aquarium equivalent of HIPAA regulations? 🤣)

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

 

Your reports are ready - to view your own report(s), please see this link (you'll need to log in to view your report)

https://aquabiomics.com/view-reports/

I will do the "your data are ready" individual emails through my website as soon as I set that up. Its just that analyzing these data and writing programs to generate these reports has been interesting and all-consuming. Web development stuff is far less interesting although necessary too. 

 

I will make a series of posts in the near future describing these reports and what we've learned. Specifically

  1. A guide to interpreting your report
  2. What have we learned about the microbiome of a typical reef tank?
  3. What have we learned about various methods for establishing the proper microbiome in a reef tank?

 

For now I will just say this -- please remember that for this first batch of samples, the balance and diversity scores are based on comparing you all with each other. (None of my tanks were included in the "typical reef tank microbiome" database).

Diversity is pretty easy to understand. Its the number of microbial types in your tank. I've also expressed this as a percentile (the diversity score) comparing your tank with everyone elses (1=most diverse tank, 0=least). 

Balance scores are based on comparing the abundance of different bacterial types. If your balance score is high, that means your tank's microbiome is like most other tanks. If your score is low, it means your tank is different. It is too early to say whether that is good or bad -- just different from the typical pattern. Maybe your tank is right and the typical tank is wrong! I think it will be important to consider the balance scores in the context of the health of your tank. And as we continue to build a database of healthy tanks these scores will become more diagnostic. 

 

There is some interesting stuff here. I have been too busy with coding to write up scientific stories about it, but thats coming next... for now, please enjoy your data and don't hesitate to ask questions especially if you have any difficulties accessing them...

 

I will appreciate any and all feedback!

 

-Eli

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Eli!  Anxious to weed through this.  BTW - not sure if you saw the comments above but we might be able to get folk in this sample to agree to identify tanks for the purposes of enhancing the comparison data - I know I would be up for it if you thought it might provide some additional data/context.

And, of course, I can't remember my password...

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, as I prepare descriptions of the results I will reach out as needed to ask about permission to share. 

As a default company policy it seems appropriate to preserve privacy of everyone's data, although when people are happy to share data that always helps!

There are a lot of questions we can ask anonymously; e.g. many of the samples came from tanks with cyanobacteria, we can ask about signature of cyano problems without disclosing anyone's specific data. But there are a few samples that may be useful examples to discuss so I will reach out to the owners when I get to that step in writing. 

I greatly appreciate peoples' willingness to freely share data, that is (supposed to be :)) how science progresses!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, EMeyer said:

Thanks, as I prepare descriptions of the results I will reach out as needed to ask about permission to share. 

As a default company policy it seems appropriate to preserve privacy of everyone's data, although when people are happy to share data that always helps!

There are a lot of questions we can ask anonymously; e.g. many of the samples came from tanks with cyanobacteria, we can ask about signature of cyano problems without disclosing anyone's specific data. But there are a few samples that may be useful examples to discuss so I will reach out to the owners when I get to that step in writing. 

I greatly appreciate peoples' willingness to freely share data, that is (supposed to be :)) how science progresses!

Very cool!  Do you mind if we share snippets of our reports here in this thread to compare with our fellow participants?  We're a bit of a competitive bunch, so I want to show off my relatively high microbial diversity score! 🤣

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

43 minutes ago, SuncrestReef said:

Very cool!  Do you mind if we share snippets of our reports here in this thread to compare with our fellow participants?  We're a bit of a competitive bunch, so I want to show off my relatively high microbial diversity score! 🤣

One of my tanks was in the 95th percentile. Can you beat that? 😜

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Lexinverts said:

One of my tanks was in the 95th percentile. Can you beat that? 😜

One person can...

47 minutes ago, SuncrestReef said:

Very cool!  Do you mind if we share snippets of our reports here in this thread to compare with our fellow participants?  We're a bit of a competitive bunch, so I want to show off my relatively high microbial diversity score! 🤣

Share away, by all means. My tendency is to share everything. My wife and various employers have informed me thats not always appropriate, but what do they know?

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, SuncrestReef said:

I'm guessing it was the aiptasia infestation at that stage of my tank progress that pushed me over the top!  🤣

All kidding aside, I started my tank with dry Pukani rock and Dr. Tim's bacteria.

Interesting. What do you keep nitrate and phosphate at in that tank? My high diversity tank is also my high nutrient tank.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, SuncrestReef said:

I'm guessing it was the aiptasia infestation at that stage of my tank progress that pushed me over the top!  🤣

All kidding aside, I started my tank with dry Pukani rock and Dr. Tim's bacteria.

This forum needs a "mind blown" reaction. Cause, /mind blown

 

My dry rock + bacteria in a bottle experimental tanks have very low scores, despite strong nitrification

 

My gut says there is more to your success than dry rock + Dr Tims, but can't presume to know what!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...