TY - JOUR UR - https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.6160 DO - 10.7717/peerj.6160 TI - Identifying accurate metagenome and amplicon software via a meta-analysis of sequence to taxonomy benchmarking studies AU - Gardner,Paul P. AU - Watson,Renee J. AU - Morgan,Xochitl C. AU - Draper,Jenny L. AU - Finn,Robert D. AU - Morales,Sergio E. AU - Stott,Matthew B. A2 - Rognes,Torbjørn DA - 2019/01/04 PY - 2019 KW - Bioinformatics KW - Metagenomics KW - Metabarcoding KW - Benchmark KW - eDNA KW - Metabenchmark AB - Metagenomic and meta-barcode DNA sequencing has rapidly become a widely-used technique for investigating a range of questions, particularly related to health and environmental monitoring. There has also been a proliferation of bioinformatic tools for analysing metagenomic and amplicon datasets, which makes selecting adequate tools a significant challenge. A number of benchmark studies have been undertaken; however, these can present conflicting results. In order to address this issue we have applied a robust Z-score ranking procedure and a network meta-analysis method to identify software tools that are consistently accurate for mapping DNA sequences to taxonomic hierarchies. Based upon these results we have identified some tools and computational strategies that produce robust predictions. VL - 7 SP - e6160 T2 - PeerJ JO - PeerJ J2 - PeerJ SN - 2167-8359 ER -