MIrROR (Microbial Identification using rRNA Operon Region) is a platform for metataxonomics using 16S-23S rRNA operon sequence. MIrROR provides a curated database for rRNA operon and analysis tools.
16S rRNA gene sequence analysis is the most widely used method for bacterial community profiling. However, short-read sequencing cannot cover the full-length of 16S rRNA, limiting assignment of taxonomy at the species level. With the development of Nanopore technology, a cost-effective long-read platform, several studies have been conducted on analyzing full-length of 16S rRNA gene to improve taxonomic resolution. Although more information was available, there were still limitations in community with high complexity due to the low accuracy of the read. Recently, there has been an attempt to amplify the 16S-23S rRNA operon sequence to overcome the two above problems, and this long fragment enables more accurate analysis at the species level with compensating for high error rates. Since then, studies that rRNA operon is appropriate for taxonomic marker have been emerging.
[Overview of MIrROR]
In bacteria, 16S, 23S, and 5S rRNAs are co-transcribed as operons. It has an advantage in gene regulation and is recently used as a taxonomy marker for bacteria.
MIrROR collected rRNA operon sequences from genome repository through several QC steps. User can use curated database for rRNA operon analysis.
Seol, Donghyeok, et al. (2022) “Microbial Identification Using rRNA Operon Region: Database and Tool for Metataxonomics with Long-Read Sequence.”
Microbiology Spectrum.