Discrepancy in numbers in the SOP?

mothur bugs
1

Hi,

I am very new to using mothur and have been trying to work through the SOP in order to familiarize myself with the software. However, each time I run through the SOP, my numbers don’t match the numbers in the tutorial even though I am following the tutorial word for word. The earliest instance of this is after the very first step (make.contigs(file=stability.files, processors=8)). After the summary sequence step, the following appears in the tutorial

Start End NBases Ambigs Polymer NumSeqs
Minimum: 1 248 248 0 3 1
2.5%-tile: 1 252 252 0 3 3810
25%-tile: 1 252 252 0 4 38091
Median: 1 252 252 0 4 76181
75%-tile: 1 253 253 0 5 114271
97.5%-tile: 1 253 253 6 6 148552
Maximum: 1 503 502 249 243 152360
Mean: 1 252.811 252.811 0.697867 4.44854

of Seqs: 152360

However when I carry out this step I obtain the following results;

Start End NBases Ambigs Polymer NumSeqs
Minimum: 1 248 248 0 3 1
2.5%-tile: 1 252 252 0 3 3810
25%-tile: 1 252 252 0 4 38091
Median: 1 252 252 0 4 76181
75%-tile: 1 253 253 0 5 114271
97.5%-tile: 1 253 253 6 6 148552
Maximum: 1 502 502 249 243 152360
Mean: 1 252.811 252.811 0.70063 4.44854

of Seqs: 152360

As can be seen there is a slight difference in two of the results. I was wondering what was causing this discrepancy and if this discrepancy is the reason that my numbers continue to differ from that of the tutorial?

Any help with this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Aidan

2

Hi,

Some of the commands make use of random number generators and there are subtle differences between different operating systems. These will result i subtle differences in output. I think you are fine.

Pat