Microbial metagenomics in aquaculture: a potential tool for a deeper insight into the activity

Abstract

The use and study of microbes in aquaculture has become a common practice in the last decade. Metagenomics is a relative recent genomics subdiscipline that has emerged as a promising scientific tool to analyse the complex genomes contained within microbial communities. However, despite the potential of metagenomics, its use is not yet common in some agro-industrial disciplines such as aquaculture. In this review, we analyse some of the potential uses of metagenomics in aquaculture to highlight the microbial diversity and dynamics of the culture systems. This review addresses some potential uses of metagenomics in the study of microbial diversity, microbial roles in microcosms, antibiotic resistance genes, novel and potential pathogens, microbial communities forming bioflocs, probiotics and other applications.