Metagenomics
Microorganisms are the basis of life on the planet Earth and they display the highest degree of biological diversity. To understand the biochemical processes of life, it is often easier to study them in a simple system (like a microorganism) instead of a complex one (like humans). Microorganisms have many molecular and biochemical properties similar to more complex organisms. They also contain unique properties such as the ability to degrade waste products, make new drugs for medicine, make environmentally friendly plastics, or even make some of the ingredients of food we eat. As a result, the genetic and biological diversity of microorganisms is an important area of scientific research. Unfortunately, scientists are able to grow less than 1% of all microorganisms observable in nature under standard laboratory conditions. This leaves scientists unable to study more than 99% of the biological diversity in the environment.
Metagenomics gives us access to millions of microorganisms that have not previously been studied. This emerging field in which the power of genomic analysis (the analysis of all the DNA in an organism) is applied to entire communities of microbes. The valuable property of metagenomics is that it provides the capacity to effectively characterize the genetic diversity present in environmental (soil, water, air, clinical) samples regardless of the availability of laboratory culturing techniques. Information from metagenomic libraries has the ability to enrich the knowledge and applications of many aspects of industry, therapeutics, and environmental sustainability. This information can then be applied to society in an effort to create a healthy human population that lives in balance with the environment.
Metagenomics is a new and exciting field of molecular biology that is likely to grow into a standard technique for understanding biological diversity.
The information on this page was derived from the National Research Council report The New Science of Metagenomics: Revealing the Secrets of Our Microbial Planet (2007) and K. J. Shelswell “Metagenomics: The science of Biological Diversity” published in The Science Creative Quarterly 2004.
