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Microbiology

Metagenomics

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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.

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Figure 1: Timeline of sequence-based metagenomic projects showing the variety of environments sampled since 2002.
Figure 2: Gene-centric analysis.
Figure 3: Comparison of the cost and throughput of sequencing technologies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Philip Hugenholtz is in the Microbial Ecology Program, DOE Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, California 94598, USA. phugenholtz@lbl.gov ,

    Philip Hugenholtz

  2. Gene W. Tyson is in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. gtyson@mit.edu,

    Gene W. Tyson

Authors
  1. Philip Hugenholtz
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  2. Gene W. Tyson
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Hugenholtz, P., Tyson, G. Metagenomics. Nature 455, 481–483 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/455481a

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