Table 2.

Range of criteria useful for sample complexity level prediction for EME single-cell genome recovery.

Tested Samples in this study and their level of complexity.	R.a	C.p	P.c.	No sample in this study	D.c,S.p	No sample in this study	T.s	B.h	M.b.	Compost ciliate, Gosling and Third Sister lakes Cryptomycota and Chytridiomycota unknown species
Complexity Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
target cell abundance (concentration)	80–100%	30–100%	50–90%	30–80%	30–70%	30–50%	10–20%	1–15%	1–5%	≤1
target cell abundance (amount)	≥102	≥103	104 – 105	104 – 105	104 – 106	104 – 106	104 – 106	104 – 106	103 – 106	≤1000
diversity of organisms	≤2	≤2	≤5	10≥5	50≥5	50≥10	50≥5	10≥2	100≥2	1000≥5
presence of ‘competing’ cells (with similar biometric characteristics)	0	0	0	≤2%	≤3%	≤4%	≤5%	≥10%	≥10%	≥10%
shape of the target cell	Spheroid, oval, cylindrical	Spheroid, oval, cylindrical	Spheroid, oval, cylindrical	Spheroid, oval, cylindrical	Spheroid, oval, trapezoidal, cylindrical	Needle-like, trapezoidal, Spheroid, oval, cylindrical	Needle-like, trapezoidal, Spheroid, oval, cylindrical	Needle-like, trapezoidal, Spheroid, oval, cylindrical	Needle-like, trapezoidal, Spheroid, oval, cylindrical	Needle-like, trapezoidal, Spheroid, oval, cylindrical
Size of the target cell	1–20uM	1–20uM	1–20uM	1–25uM	1–25uM	1–25uM	1–30uM	0.5 –50uM	0.5 –60uM	0.5 –80uM
target cell wall complexity (layers)	≤1	≤1	≤1	2	2	0–2	0–2	0–2	0–2	0–3