Definition
The aim of metagenomics is to investigate enormous diversity of taxonomically and phylogenetically relevant genes, individual catabolic genes, and whole operons by explicating the genomes of uncultured microbes. The concept of metagenomics was introduced by Handelsman which involves the extraction of genomic DNA from the microbial community inhabiting the environment. Either this DNA is cloned as libraries for functional screening, or PCR-based enrichment is performed with respect to gene of interest. Generally, DNA is considered as the most appropriate method for assessing environmental microbial community’s structure as any selection biasness is not involved. High-throughput methods can be employed for direct sequencing of the metagenome. The functional approach is used to explore genes that encode novel enzymes or drugs, but advancements are needed for function-based metagenomics by employing...
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Batra, N., Bhatia, S., Behal, A., Singh, J., Joshi, A. (2013). Metagenomic Research: Methods and Ecological Applications. In: Nelson, K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Metagenomics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6418-1_766-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6418-1_766-2
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