The interactions between microbes and plants make the major contribution to the biotic components of soils, the most diverse habitats on Earth. Plants play central roles in providing nutrient input into the soil, both through microbially-mediated decomposition of plant matter, and through the direct provision of photosynthate derived root exudates. These nutrients support large and diverse microbial communities, many of which provide direct benefit to the plant. The interplay between plants and their microbial co-habitants is regulated by extensive chemical signalling. Most of what we know about these complex community interactions has been derived through study of organisms in pure culture, but it is well known that the vast majority of microbes have not been cultivated. We now have the opportunity to explore the interactions between plants and microbes through cultivation-independent study of the microbial communities. While high-throughput DNA sequence analysis is an important tool for these studies, the immense richness and diversity of such communities present a strong mandate for the use of functional metagenomics strategies that involve a broad variety of screening methodologies to discover and study the currently unknown key biological processes.

Further reading

• Environmental Molecular Microbiology
• Metagenomics: Theory, Methods and Applications
• Environmental Microbiology

Labels: Biotic components of soils, metagenomics, microbial communities, plant-microbe interactions

Metagenomics is a rapidly growing field of research that has had a dramatic effect on the way we view and study the microbial world. By permitting the direct investigation of bacteria, viruses and fungi irrespective of their culturability and taxonomic identities, metagenomics has changed microbiological theory and methods and has also challenged the classical concept of species. This new field of biology has proven to be rich and comprehensive and is making important contributions in many areas including ecology, biodiversity, bioremediation, bioprospection of natural products, and in medicine.

from Diana Marco in Metagenomics: Theory, Methods and Applications

Labels: archaea, archaeal metagenomics, bioremediation, horizontal gene transfer, metagenomics, microbial communities, microbiome, plant-microbe interactions