Metagenomics

摘要

Ten years after the term metagenomics was coined, the approach continues to gather momentum. This culture-independent, molecular way of analysing environmental samples of cohabiting microbial populations has opened up fresh perspectives on microbiology. Genomics determines the complete genetic complement of an organism by high-throughput sequencing of the base pairs of its DNA. The most prominent example was the Human Genome Project, which involved the sequencing of 3 billion base pairs. But the genomes of hundreds of organisms from all three domains of life (archaea, bacteria and eukarya), as well as those of quasi-life forms such as viruses, have now been sequenced. Metagenomics, by contrast, involves sampling the genome sequences of a community of organisms inhabiting a common environment. Metagenomics has also been more broadly defined as any type of analysis of DNA obtained directly from the environment - for example, after the appropriate procedures, screening such DNA for particular enzymatic activity. To date, the approach has been applied exclusively to microbial communities.