Microbial metabarcoding is the standard approach to assess communities' diversity. However reports are often limited to simple OTU abundances for each phylum, giving rather one-dimensional views of microbial assemblages, overlooking other accessible aspects. The first is masked by databases incompleteness; OTU picking involves clustering at 97% (near-species) sequence identity, but different OTUs regularly end up under a same taxon name. When expressing diversity as number of obtained taxonomical names, a large portion of the real diversity lying within the data remains underestimated. Using the 16S sequencing results of an environmental transect across a gradient of 17 coastal habitats we first extracted the number of OTUs hidden under the same name. Further we observed which was the deepest rank yielded by annotation, revealing for which microbial groups are we missing most knowledge. Data were then used to infer an evolutionary aspect: what is, in each phylum the success of the present time individuals (abundances for each OTU) in relation to their prior evolutionary success in differentiation (number of OTUs). This information reveals whether the past speciation/diversification force is matched by the present competitiveness in reproduction/persistence. The final layer explored is functional diversity, i.e. abundances of groups involved in specific environmental processes.

中文翻译：

---

微生物群落结构的隐藏层：从我们的测序数据中提取隐藏的多样性维度。

微生物元条形码是评估社区多样性的标准方法。但是，报告通常仅限于每个门的简单OTU丰度，提供了微生物组合的一维视图，而忽略了其他可访问方面。第一个被数据库不完整所掩盖。OTU挑选涉及以97％（近物种）的序列同一性进行聚类，但是不同的OTU通常以相同的分类名称命名。当将多样性表示为获得的分类名称的数量时，位于数据内的大部分实际多样性仍然被低估了。利用环境样带在17个沿海生境的梯度上的16S测序结果，我们首先提取了以相同名称隐藏的OTU的数量。我们进一步观察到，这是注释产生的最深等级，揭示我们缺少哪些微生物群的大多数知识。然后使用数据推断进化方面：在每个门上，当前个体的成功（每个OTU的丰度）与其在分化方面先前的进化成功（OTU的数量）有关。该信息揭示了过去的物种分化/多样化力量是否与当前的繁殖/持久性竞争力相匹配。探索的最后一层是功能多样性，即参与特定环境过程的群体的丰富性。该信息揭示了过去的物种分化/多样化力量是否与当前的繁殖/持久性竞争力相匹配。探索的最后一层是功能多样性，即参与特定环境过程的群体的丰富性。该信息揭示了过去的物种分化/多样化力量是否与当前的繁殖/持久性竞争力相匹配。探索的最后一层是功能多样性，即参与特定环境过程的群体的丰富性。