Contaminant sequences in metagenomic samples can potentially impact the interpretation of findings reported in microbiome studies, especially in low biomass environments. Here the authors describe Squeegee, a computational approach designed to detect microbial contamination within low microbial biomass microbiomes and identify microbial contaminants in publicly available datasets that lack negative controls.
- Yunxi Liu
- R. A. Leo Elworth
- Todd J. Treangen