Fig. 1

The sequence read and primer set influence edit distance and Q-score. A R1 had consistently higher Q-scores than the same cumulative fraction of R2, likely limiting errors that would otherwise result in mismatches and allowing for greater overlap during amplicon assembly. B Reads corresponding to the V4-V4 primer set had the lowest edit distance and highest Q-scores than the same cumulative fraction of reads corresponding to the V3-V4 and V4-V5 primer sets. Data shown represent kernel density estimates with green boxplots and white circles representing median values. Empirical cumulative distributions were significantly different (KS test p value < 0.001) among all factor levels compared within each plot