Microbiome

Microbiome & Metagenomics

Metagenomics is the study of microbial communities in their original living places. Metagenome sequencing refers to sequencing the entire genomes of all microbes present in a sample in order to explore taxonomic, functional, and evolutionary aspects.

Metagenomics is microbial community genomics

- study of complete microbial communities directly in their natural environments, including
- focus on microbial communities (microbiome)
  - microbial composition, presence and abundance (a sample can contain more than 10,000 species)
  - functional gene content across all microbes
- metagenomics does not require isolation and culturing of individual microbes: 'culture independent'

What is a microbiome?

- the complete set of microbes that live in a particular microbial ecosystem: within and on the human body (human microbiome), specific plants (grapevine microbiome), or the oceans (marine microbiome)
- includes also the entire collection of microbial genes present in any bacteria of these microbial communities