Definition
Ocean metagenomics is the analysis of genomic DNA from marine microbial communities in the ocean.
Introduction
Metagenomics – here defined as shotgun metagenomics, or analyzing the genomic DNA from an entire microbial community in its natural environment – has uncovered numerous biochemical and genetic findings since the term was coined in 1998 (Handelsman et al. 1998). Metagenomic studies of microbial communities in the world’s oceans have consistently led the field in terms of application of metagenomic techniques. Currently, a search using the online metagenomic database MG-RAST (http://metagenomics.anl.gov/) for public metagenomes from marine habitats yields 274 shotgun metagenomes. Only the Human Microbiome Project (http://commonfund.nih.gov/hmp/) has yielded more public-access shotgun metagenomes for a particular biome.
Marine microbial communities comprise a significant proportion of the global carbon, heterotrophic, and autotrophic activity for planet Earth (Whitman...
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Gilbert, J. (2015). Ocean Metagenomics. In: Highlander, S.K., Rodriguez-Valera, F., White, B.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Metagenomics. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7475-4_40
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7475-4_40
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