Fig. 7
Example of taxonomic bias observed in technical control samples compared to environmental samples. The composition of each of the pooled a dust, b kit controls, and c surfaces samples is shown as a donut. The “kit microbiome” displayed higher abundances of the bacterial phylum Tenericutes (green slice in the donut chart indicated by arrows). Per-sample abundance of Tenericutes is represented by green bars displayed across all panels. Some samples in the North Carolina homes study showed similar levels of Tenericutes compared to the kit controls (c, far right); this implies some level of contamination in non-control environmental samples from this study, which the authors identified and removed in the original study [9]. Donut and bar charts were generated using the Phinch data visualization framework [63]