Introducing mothur: open-source, platform-independent, community-supported software for describing and comparing microbial communities

Appl Environ Microbiol. 2009 Dec;75(23):7537-41. doi: 10.1128/AEM.01541-09. Epub 2009 Oct 2.

Abstract

mothur aims to be a comprehensive software package that allows users to use a single piece of software to analyze community sequence data. It builds upon previous tools to provide a flexible and powerful software package for analyzing sequencing data. As a case study, we used mothur to trim, screen, and align sequences; calculate distances; assign sequences to operational taxonomic units; and describe the alpha and beta diversity of eight marine samples previously characterized by pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA gene fragments. This analysis of more than 222,000 sequences was completed in less than 2 h with a laptop computer.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biodiversity*
  • Computational Biology / methods*
  • Environmental Microbiology
  • Metagenomics / methods*
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA
  • Software*