Metagenomic Approach in Relation to Microbe–Microbe and Plant–Microbiome Interactions

Abstract

Metagenomics is the study of the genetic material of microbes in their natural living environment, which involves complex microbial communities. This study helps to identify the sequences of uncultured microbes present in the plant rhizosphere and their diversity in the environment through quicker and less expensive methods. This is a new challenge for technicians and bioinformaticians to gain knowledge about microbes through millions of genomes. From culture, only single-clone data are obtained, which are then further used in sequence formation, whereas in metagenomics, usually data on more than 10, 000 species in microbial communities are studied. From these samples, new genes and their functions have been observed. In the future, this technique will be used in the same way as 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing methods are used to describe profiles of microbial communities. Metagenomics is new to science and is a novel technique for handling of genomic data by scientists, used in the last few years.