FIG 2.

Relationship between the number of 16S rRNA gene copies in a sample and the reproducibility of the result. (A) Intrareplicate Bray-Curtis distance by sample type. Relationship between the number of bacterial 16S rRNA gene copies in a sample and the intrareplicate Bray-Curtis distance between replicates of respiratory specimens and their individual controls. (B) Mean (± SEM) number of 16S rRNA gene copies per sample by sample type. (C) Concentration of the number of bacterial 16S rRNA gene copies in a sample plotted against the intrareplicate Bray-Curtis distance between replicates of respiratory specimens and their individual controls. Each value is the mean ± SEM.