Comparison of prevalence of bacteria in the cohort identified by deep sequencing (NGS, grey bars) and cultivation for classical diagnostics (black bars).

<p>OTUs are listed on the left according their occurrence observed with deep sequencing. Bacteria present in >50% of all samples were categorized as highly prevalent, bacteria detectable in more than 10% of the cases were considered moderately prevalent and those observed in less than 10% of the cases were categorized as bacteria with low prevalence. Categorization follows detection rates by deep sequencing. For precise identification of bacteria see Table C in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0117436#pone.0117436.s001" target="_blank">S1 File</a>. Only 71 sputum samples were taken into account (no data from cultivation for sample #20B). * Streptococcus-1 was compared with alpha-hemolytic streptococci.