• PLFA will give us an idea of...
  • However, cells have different numbers of phospholipids
  • bacteria/fungi ratio
  • studies linking PLFA and sequencing data
  • can it be used to make more quantitative?
  • Jan: The ratios are fine but we also get ratios in NGS profiles. The lipid analyses (and PLFA in particular) also provide absolute estimates of microbial biomass, provided good internal standards are used - this is well developed research behind it. Thus I personally think that combining/building on PLFA data could help "rooting" the relative proportions from NGS projects on more solid grounds - irrespective of the fact that it is less sensitive to recognizing microbial guilds.