Lysozyme Treatment Makes 16S rRNA Amplicon Sequencing Results Less Biased

Background: Amplicon sequencing is widely applied in gut bacteria structure analysis. However, the proportion of Gram-positive bacteria may greatly affect the results of microbial community analysis. Lysozyme is an effective agent to extract DNA of Gram-positive bacteria. In this study, we assessed the influence of lysozyme treatment on results of Bactrocere dorsalis rectal bacteria structure. Result The results indicated that the total bacteria content can be significantly increased in lysozyme treated samples. Moreover, rectal bacteria diversity was significantly higher in lysozyme treated samples. A detail analysis revealed that abundance of Gram-positive bacteria significantly increased in samples treated with lysozyme. Conclusion This study indicates that lysozyme treatment before DNA extraction is an effective way to reduce bias in bacteria structure analysis, especially for samples with high proportion of Gram-positive bacteria.