Williamson Shannon J, Yooseph Shibu
J. Craig Venter Institute, San Diego, CA, USA.
Methods Mol Biol. 2012;804:35-55. doi: 10.1007/978-1-61779-361-5_3.
Metagenomics is revolutionizing the field of microbial ecology through techniques that eliminate the prerequisite of culturing. Metagenomic studies of microbial populations in different environments reveal the incredible diversity and adaptive capabilities of these organisms. With the advent of cheaper, high-throughput sequencing technologies, these studies are also producing vast amounts of sequence data. Here, we discuss the different components of a metagenomic study including sample collection, DNA extraction, sequencing, and informatics. We highlight their issues and challenges, and review the solutions that are currently in use. We conclude with examples of metagenomic studies conducted on environments of varying complexities.
宏基因组学正在通过消除培养前提条件的技术彻底改变微生物生态学领域。对不同环境中微生物种群的宏基因组学研究揭示了这些生物体令人难以置信的多样性和适应能力。随着更廉价的高通量测序技术的出现，这些研究也产生了大量的序列数据。在这里，我们讨论宏基因组学研究的不同组成部分，包括样本采集、DNA提取、测序和信息学。我们强调了它们的问题和挑战，并回顾了目前正在使用的解决方案。我们以对不同复杂程度环境进行的宏基因组学研究为例进行总结。
