Metagenomics

Question 1

What is metagenomics?

Answer 1

Functional and sequence-based analysis of the collective microbial genomes contained in an environmental sample.

Without use of culturing

Question 2

How many microbial species are there?

Answer 2

10 million to

1 billion species

Question 3

What are some of the functions of human microbiomes?

Answer 3

Provide the body with essential vitamins like B3, B6, B12, etc…

Question 4

How many different gut microbiomes are there?

Answer 4

3

Question 5

What are some ecological functions of bacteria?

Answer 5

Genesis of O2

Fixation of N2

Question 6

What were the features of early metagenomics?

Answer 6

No high throughput sequencing in 1980s

Gene level, whole genome

Qualitative species level analysis–can’t say how much of a species there is

Question 7

What are the features of modern metagenomics?

Answer 7

Advent of high throughput sequencing
Early HTP methods ~250,000 sequence reads
Still rely on 16S, but new dimension of information