Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 28, 2026
08:43
Metagenomic Analysis of Silage
Published on: January 13, 2017
19.3K
Metagenomics: Retrospect and Prospects in High Throughput Age
Satish Kumar1, Kishore Kumar Krishnani1, Bharat Bhushan2
1ICAR-National Institute of Abiotic Stress Management, Baramati, Pune, Maharashtra 413115, India.
Biotechnology Research International
|December 15, 2015
Summary
Metagenomics, a culture-independent method, unlocks microbial potential from diverse environments. This review covers its history, applications, and the impact of Next Generation Sequencing and bioinformatics on understanding microbial communities.
Area of Science:
- Microbiology
- Genomics
- Bioinformatics
Background:
- Metagenomics enables culture-independent analysis of microbial communities.
- It has been widely applied across various habitats over the past two decades.
- The field has evolved from community composition studies to understanding microbial dynamics.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the historical progress and current state of metagenomics.
- To highlight the discovery of novel commercial biological functions from metagenomes.
- To emphasize the impact of technological advancements on metagenomic research.
Main Methods:
- Historical review of metagenomic applications.
- Analysis of data from diverse microbial habitats.
- Discussion of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) and bioinformatics tools.
Main Results:
- Metagenomics has successfully identified numerous novel microbial functions.
- Significant advancements have been made in understanding microbial community structure and function.
- Technological breakthroughs have accelerated the pace of discovery.
Conclusions:
- Metagenomics is a powerful tool for exploring microbial diversity and function.
- Continued development in sequencing and bioinformatics will further enhance its capabilities.
- Harnessing uncultured microbes offers vast potential for commercial applications.
Related Concept Videos
02:02Genomics
41.7K
Genomics is the science of genomes: it is the study of all the genetic material of an organism. In humans, the genome consists of information carried in 23 pairs of chromosomes in the nucleus, as well as mitochondrial DNA. In genomics, both coding and non-coding DNA is sequenced and analyzed. Genomics allows a better understanding of all living things, their evolution, and their diversity. It has a myriad of uses: for example, to build phylogenetic trees, to improve productivity and...
41.7K
03:00Next-generation Sequencing
101.0K
The first human genome sequencing project cost $2.7 billion and was declared complete in 2003, after 15 years of international cooperation and collaboration between several research teams and funding agencies. Today, with the advent of next-generation sequencing technologies, the cost and time of sequencing a human genome have dropped over 100 fold.
Next-Generation Sequencing Methods
Although all next-generation methods use different technologies, they all share a set of standard features....
Next-Generation Sequencing Methods
Although all next-generation methods use different technologies, they all share a set of standard features....
101.0K
01:57Sanger Sequencing
778.3K
DNA sequencing is a fundamental technique that is routinely used in the biological sciences. This method can be applied to a range of questions at different scales - from the sequencing of a cloned DNA fragment or the study of a mutation in a gene up to whole-genome sequencing. However, despite the widespread use of sequencing today, it was not until 1977 that Fredrick Sanger and his collaborators developed the chain-termination method to decode DNA sequences. It relies on the separation of a...
778.3K
01:29Modern Molecular Taxonomy
834
Advancements in molecular biology have revolutionized the identification and characterization of bacteria, with multiple methods leveraging DNA sequencing for enhanced precision. As sequencing technologies improve and costs decline, these approaches are increasingly used in clinical, environmental, and evolutionary studies.Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) examines several housekeeping genes, essential chromosomal genes encoding cellular functions, to distinguish strains. Approximately...
834
01:05Maxam-Gilbert Sequencing
13.6K
In the same year as the discovery of the Sanger sequencing method, another group of scientists, Allan Maxam and Walter Gilbert, demonstrated their chemical-cleavage method for DNA sequencing. The Maxam-Gilbert method relies on using different chemicals that can cleave the DNA sequence at specific sites, the separation of resulting DNA fragments of variable size using electrophoresis, and deciphering the DNA sequence from the resulting gel bands.
Challenges of the Maxam-Gilbert Method
The...
Challenges of the Maxam-Gilbert Method
The...
13.6K
02:54Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons
7.2K
Genome comparison is one of the excellent ways to interpret the evolutionary relationships between organisms. The basic principle of genome comparison is that if two species share a common feature, it is likely encoded by the DNA sequence conserved between both species. The advent of genome sequencing technologies in the late 20th century enabled scientists to understand the concept of conservation of domains between species and helped them to deduce evolutionary relationships across diverse...
7.2K