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Red Sea Metagenomics

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Metagenomics

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Synonyms

Community genomics of the Red Sea (Arabic: Al-Bahr al-Ahmar)

Definition

The study of microbial taxonomic and functional diversity in waters of the Red Sea by sequencing millions of small fragments of genomic DNA isolated from bacteria, archaea, and viruses collected from the seawater by filtration.

Introduction

The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, technically an incipient ocean forming via seafloor spreading of the Red Sea Rift, part of the Great Rift Valley. Mostly isolated from the world ocean, the Red Sea is connected only by a shallow strait (Bab el Mandeb, 310 m) to the Gulf of Aden and by the very shallow Suez Canal (25 m) to the Mediterranean Sea. The region is subject to high year-round solar irradiance and high air temperatures. Because riverine and other freshwater inputs draining into the Red Sea are negligible, net evaporation has resulted in high salinities. High solar irradiance and low circulation with the Indian Ocean also cause high water...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Knight Lab, BioFrontiers Institute, University of Colorado, 596 UCB, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA

    Luke Thompson

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  1. Luke Thompson
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Correspondence to Luke Thompson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), Rockville, Maryland, USA

    Karen E. Nelson

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Thompson, L. (2014). Red Sea Metagenomics. In: Nelson, K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Metagenomics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6418-1_803-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6418-1_803-2

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6418-1

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