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. 2012 Jan 26;6(8):1469–1479. doi: 10.1038/ismej.2011.211

Table 2. Taxonomic identity of indicator OTUs in different environments at a hospital.

Environment Indicator OTU class Indicator OTU family Indicator OTU closest BLAST hit Indicator OTU % ID
Indoor Actinobacteria Actinomycetales Kytococcus sedentarius 98.8
Mechanical Bacteroidetes Flavobacteriaceae    
  Firmicutes Staphylococcaceae Staphylococcus epidermidis* 99.1
      S. haemolyticus* 98.5
  Proteobacteria Burkholderiaceae Ralstonia pickettii* 98.2
    Caulobacteraceae    
    Enterobacteriaceae Enterobacter spp. 98.5
Indoor Actinobacteria Actinomycetales Kocuria rhizophila 96.1
Window     Micrococcus luteus 99.7
  Cyanobacteria Bacillariophyta    
  Proteobacteria Acetobacteraceae    
    Moraxellaceae    
    Rhodobacteraceae    
Outdoor Acidobacteria      
  Actinobacteria Acidimicrobiales    
    Actinomycetales    
    Solirubrobacterales    
  Bacteroidetes Chitinophagaceae    
    Cytophagaceae    
  Chloroflexi Chloroflexaceae    
  Cyanobacteria Bangiophyceae Microcystis aeruginosa 95.1
    Streptophyta Prochlorococcus marinus 95
  Deinococcus-Thermus Deinococcaceae    
  Gemmatimonadetes Gemmatimonadaceae    
  Proteobacteria Acetobacteraceae    
    Beijerinckiaceae Methylocella silvestris 95.2
    Bradyrhizobiaceae    
    Caulobacteraceae    
    Erythrobacteraceae    
    Halothiobacillaceae    
    Methylobacteriaceae Methylobacterium extorquens 96.7
      M. radiotolerans 99.0
    Methylococcaceae    
    Methylocystaceae    
    Oxalobacteraceae    
    Pasteurellaceae    
    Rhodospirillaceae    
    Sinobacteraceae    
    Sphingomonadaceae    
  Verrucomicrobia      

Abbreviations: BLAST, Basic Local Alignment Search Tool; OUT, operational taxonomic unit; RDP, Ribosomal Database Project.

Indicator OTUs are OTUs with greater abundance and occurrence frequency in an environment than expected by chance. Taxonomic identity based on assignment to class/family by the RDP taxonomic classifier. The closest BLAST hit in the reference database is shown for indicator OTUs with 95% or greater sequence similarity to reference taxa. Asterisk symbols indicate potentially pathogenic indicator taxa with 97% or greater similarity to known human pathogens.