Montagem de ambiente de análises ecológicas de microbiomas usando a Plataforma Qiime2

Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field that integrates knowledge from several areas, such as Biological Sciences, Computer Science, Statistics, among others. There is a debate about the need for biologists to become proficient in programming, taking into account the complexity and time required to specialize in this area. Although this requirement is questionable, basic knowledge in the area can facilitate communication between biologists and computer specialists, especially in situations where readymade programs do not meet specific needs. Given this scenario, this Final Course Work aimed to evaluate different strategies for setting up an environment for using the Qiime 2 platform for metataxonomic analyses. To validate the environment and the pipeline, amplicon sequencing data from the Serra da Canastra National Park were analyzed, focusing on areas impacted and not impacted by fire during the 1st Integrated Fire Management. At the end of the analyses, it was possible to identify how the action of fire changed the soil microbiological communities. The comparative analysis of bioinformatics machines revealed that, although computers with lower resource availability are capable of performing basic processes, more complex tasks, especially in microbiome studies, require machines with higher resource availability. In the tests carried out, the machine with 64 GB of RAM and 12 vCPUs proved to be the most suitable for handling large volumes of data and intensive processes. However, for research with budget constraints, a more economical and efficient approach may be the strategic combination of different machines, allowing cost optimization without compromising the quality of the results.