Usefulness of rarefaction curves

[Allison]

Hi all,

I was wondering whether anyone could point me to a reference regarding the usefulness of rarefaction curves in evaluating next generation sequencing data?

My understanding is that as the depth of sequencing has increased, rarefaction curves have grown less and less useful as a tool to evaluate whether all the diversity in a sample has been sequenced. I certainly haven't seen many rarefaction curves published recently, especially in studies using Illumina data, but was wondering if there were any references out there that I could point someone to.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Colin Brislawn]

Hello Allison,

My understanding is that as the depth of sequencing has increased, rarefaction curves have grown less and less useful as a tool to evaluate whether all the diversity in a sample has been sequenced.

I have heard that too, and definitely seen rarefaction curves fall out of style. I'm also interested to find a citation...

Looking forward to hearing from other qiime users!

Colin