Does the sample size affect on the molecular typing of clinical isolates & what's the ideal sample size for molecular typing and genetic diversity? Is there any statistic to be done to justify the molecular size?
Hello!
which organisms do you want to genotype and which is the aim of the study?
The aim of the study is: study the genetic diversity of S. mutans & S. sobrinus using rep-PCR primers.
I don't work on bacteria, but I did molecular epidemiology on a protozoan parasite. The number of clinical samples I genotyped was a convenience sample, basically the number of cases of disease emerging in the community. That's the case for most molecular epidemiological studies describing the genetic variability of pathogens in clinical samples. Obviously, the bigger the sample size the more complete and representative the study will be. I have attached the link to a paper you may find of interest in your specific case;)
http://aem.asm.org/content/74/11/3490.full
I think lower sample sizes would bias your estimates of genetic diversity as such bigger sample sizes would be better (as Corrado Minetti has pointed out). It is also important to have a good temporal spread of your isolates because if the isolates are sampled at a small time frame you may underestimate the true diversity for your population. An example of this would be when you are working with outbreak strains which may have much lower genetic diversity than would normally be expected.
What do you think the minimum sample size for the determination of genetic diversity?
Dear Hamzah
To determine the sample size of any study depend on standard deviation of interest trait and the margin of error in the study
Good Luck
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