Fig. 3

TEF assay outperforms ITS1 when sequencing fungal mock communities. Two representative fungal mock community analyses are shown. Each community contained 5 species, was targeted by TEF and ITS1 in duplicate and sequenced on an Illumina iSeq and MiSeq. For ITS1 samples, iSeq sequencing was performed twice. Bar plots indicate normalised species count data and expected mock community (dashed green box). Dendrograms indicate hierarchical clustering of Bray-Curtis distances and samples are ordered accordingly. A. ITS1 either significantly under-estimates or fails to identify (A) fumigatus when it is dominant (92% genome equivalents) in a community. TEF identifies all species present and at close to the expected relative abundances. (B) ITS1 correctly identifies (C) neoformans when it is dominant but fails to identify filamentous species present at a low level (A. fumigatus and P. rubens). TEF identified all species present and at close to the expected relative abundances