Figure 3. There is broad agreement between qualitative bacterial culture results and 454 pyrosequencing for dominant CF pathogens.

The fraction of sequence assigned to the genus (a) Pseudomonas or (b) Burkholderia are plotted for each patient and sample timepoint as a function of the patient' s reported culture status for the recognized CF pathogens P. aeruginosa and B. cepacia complex species. Patient samples are color-coded by timepoint (green, onset of exacerbation; red, end-of-treatment for exacerbation with intravenous antibiotics; blue, clinically stable interval). Patient 19 was culture negative for both P. aeruginosa and B. cepacia.