Microbiome Analysis: Methods and Protocols

Abstract

The microbiome, coined by Lederberg and McCray as “...the ecological community of commensal, symbiotic, and pathogenic microorganisms that literally share our body space”, draws together a remarkable number of disciplines with the overarching goal of understanding and ultimately harnessing the workings of microbial systems. True to the initial conception of the term, the human microbiome continues to be intensively studied, but microbial samples have been collected from nearly every imaginable habitat on Earth, from the upper atmosphere to the seabed subsurface, from hot springs to glacier ice, and from nematode guts to whale carcasses.