Metagenomics — Who is there and what are they doing?
Gaining insights into data from microbial communities
Did you know that your body houses about 100 trillion bacteria? Estimates show that a human has approximately a pound or two of bacteria living in his/her gut (stomach) [1] (Now don’t go and drink all the antibiotics you know, to kill those bacteria. In fact, these bacteria play an important role in our metabolism and immune system). The same goes for the backyard of your house. There can be many species of bacteria living in the soil and they help to enrich the soil (e.g.: nitrifying bacteria produce nitrates which are essential for plants). These microscopic communities have very diverse ecosystems and studying their composition and behaviour can provide us with valuable insights. In this article, I will provide a basic introduction to metagenomics, which is the study of genetic material obtained from microbial communities.
What is Metagenomics?
Metagenomics is the application of modern genomic techniques to the study of communities of microbial organisms directly in their natural environments, bypassing the need for isolation and lab cultivation of individual…
