The 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene of Bacteria codes for the RNA component of the 30S subunit. Different bacterial species have one to multiple copies of the 16S rRNA gene, and each with 9 hypervariable regions, V1-V9. High-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA gene (a “marker gene”) amplicons has become a widely used method to study bacterial phylogeny and species classification.

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