Metagenome Sequencing

Metagenomics is the study of microbial communities in their original habitats, which can give a comprehensive insight into the interactions within these communities. Metagenomics can also help identify individual species within microbial habitats. Shotgun metagenomics refers to the approach of shearing DNA extracted from environmental samples and sequencing the small fragments to study not only the microbial species composition, but also the gene functions and metabolic pathways within them. 16S/18S/ITS Amplicon-based sequencing is a DNA sequencing method that focuses on sequencing specific target regions, amplicons, to understand the species composition and diversity within the community.