Enhancing metagenomics investigations of microbial interactions with biofilm technology

Investigations of microbial ecology and diversity have been greatly enhanced by the application of culture-independent techniques. One such approach, metagenomics, involves sample collections from soil, water, and other environments. Extracted nucleic acids from bulk environmental samples are sequenced and analyzed, which allows microbial interactions to be inferred on the basis of bioinformatics calculations. In most environments, microbial interactions occur predominately in surface-adherent, biofilm communities. In this review, we address metagenomics sampling and biofilm biology, and propose an experimental strategy whereby the resolving power of metagenomics can be enhanced by incorporating a biofilm-enrichment step during sample acquisition.