• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.121-128
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• 2013

The introduction of metagenomics into the field of virology has facilitated the exploration of viral communities in various natural habitats. Understanding the viral ecology of a variety of sample types throughout the biosphere is important per se, but it also has potential applications in clinical and diagnostic virology. However, the procedures used by viral metagenomics may produce technical errors, such as amplification bias, while public viral databases are very limited, which may hamper the determination of the viral diversity in samples. This review considers the current state of viral metagenomics, based on examples from Korean viral metagenomic studies-i.e., rice paddy soil, fermented foods, human gut, seawater, and the near-surface atmosphere. Viral metagenomics has become widespread due to various methodological developments, and much attention has been focused on studies that consider the intrinsic role of viruses that interact with their hosts.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.102-113
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• 2013

Metagenomics has become one of the indispensable tools in microbial ecology for the last few decades, and a new revolution in metagenomic studies is now about to begin, with the help of recent advances of sequencing techniques. The massive data production and substantial cost reduction in next-generation sequencing have led to the rapid growth of metagenomic research both quantitatively and qualitatively. It is evident that metagenomics will be a standard tool for studying the diversity and function of microbes in the near future, as fingerprinting methods did previously. As the speed of data accumulation is accelerating, bioinformatic tools and associated databases for handling those datasets have become more urgent and necessary. To facilitate the bioinformatics analysis of metagenomic data, we review some recent tools and databases that are used widely in this field and give insights into the current challenges and future of metagenomics from a bioinformatics perspective.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.86-95
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• 2019

The modern era of microbial genome analysis began in earnest in the 2000s with the generalization of metagenomics and gene sequencing techniques. Studying complex microbial community such as oral cavity and colon by a pure culture is considerably ineffective in terms of cost and time. Therefore, various techniques for genomic analysis have been developed to overcome the limitation of the culture method and to explore microbial communities existing in the natural environment at the gene level. Among these, DNA fingerprinting analysis and microarray chip have been used extensively; however, the most recent method of analysis is metagenomics. The study summarily examined the overview of metagenomics analysis techniques, as well as domestic and foreign studies on disease genomics and cluster analysis related to oral metagenome. The composition of oral bacteria also varies across different individuals, and it would become possible to analyze what change occurs in the human body depending on the activity of bacteria living in the oral cavity and what causality it has with diseases. Identification, isolation, metabolism, and presence of functional genes of microorganisms are being identified for correlation analysis based on oral microbial genome sequencing. For precise diagnosis and treatment of diseases based on microbiome, greater effort is needed for finding not only the causative microorganisms, but also indicators at gene level. Up to now, oral microbial studies have mostly involved metagenomics, but if metatranscriptomic, metaproteomic, and metabolomic approaches can be taken together for assessment of microbial genes and proteins that are expressed under specific conditions, then doing so can be more helpful for gaining comprehensive understanding.

• Food Science and Industry
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.220-228
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• 2019

Rapid development of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology is available to study microbes in genomic level. This NGS has been widely used in DNA/RNA sequencing for genome sequencing, metagenomics, and transcriptomics. The food microbiology area could be categorized into three groups. Food microbes including probiotics and food-borne pathogens are studied in genomic level using NGS for microbial genomics. While food fermentation or food spoilage are more complicated, their genomic study needs to be done with metagenomics using NGS for compositional analysis. Furthermore, because microbial response in food environments are also important to understand their roles in food fermentation or spoilage, pattern analysis of RNA expression in the specific food microbe is conducted using RNA-Seq. These microbial genomics, metagenomics, and transcriptomics for food fermentation and spoilage would extend our knowledge on effective utilization of fermenting bacteria for health promotion as well as efficient control of food-borne pathogens for food safety.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.49.1-49.11
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• 2023

Recent advances in sequencing technologies and platforms have enabled to generate metagenomics sequences using different sequencing platforms. In this study, we analyzed and compared shotgun metagenomic sequences generated by HiSeq3000 and BGISEQ-500 platforms from 12 sediment samples collected across the Norwegian coast. Metagenomics DNA sequences were normalized to an equal number of bases for both platforms and further evaluated by using different taxonomic classifiers, reference databases, and assemblers. Normalized BGISEQ-500 sequences retained more reads and base counts after preprocessing, while a slightly higher fraction of HiSeq3000 sequences were taxonomically classified. Kaiju classified a higher percentage of reads relative to Kraken2 for both platforms, and comparison of reference database for taxonomic classification showed that MAR database outperformed RefSeq. Assembly using MEGAHIT produced longer assemblies and higher total contigs count in majority of HiSeq3000 samples than using metaSPAdes, but the assembly statistics notably improved with unprocessed or normalized reads. Our results indicate that both platforms perform comparably in terms of the percentage of taxonomically classified reads and assembled contig statistics for metagenomics samples. This study provides valuable insights for researchers in selecting an appropriate sequencing platform and bioinformatics pipeline for their metagenomics studies.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.9
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• pp.1367-1378
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• 2020

The polyphagous eri silk moth, Samia ricini, is associated with various symbiotic gut bacteria believed to provide several benefits to the host. The larvae of S. ricini were subjected to isolation of gut bacteria using culture-dependent 16S rRNA generic characterization, metagenomics analysis and qualitative enzymatic assays. Sixty culturable aerobic gut bacterial isolates comprising Firmicutes (54%) and Proteobacteria (46%); and twelve culturable facultative anaerobic bacteria comprising Proteobacteria (92%) and Firmicutes (8%) were identified inhabiting the gut of S. ricini. The results of metagenomics analysis revealed the presence of a diverse community of both culturable and un-culturable gut bacteria belonging to Proteobacteria (60%) and Firmicutes (20%) associated with seven orders. An analysis of the results of culturable isolation indicates that these bacterial isolates inhabited all the three compartments of the gut. Investigation on persistence of bacteria coupled with metagenomics analysis of the fifth instar suggested that bacteria persist in the gut across the different instar stages. In addition, enzymatic assays indicated that 48 and 75% of culturable aerobic, and 75% of anaerobic gut bacterial isolates had cellulolytic, lipolytic and nitrate reductase activities, thus suggesting that they may be involved in food digestion and nutritional provision to the host. These bacterial isolates may be good sources for profiling novel genes and biomolecules for biotechnological application.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.63 no.6
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• pp.1423-1432
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• 2021

To elucidate the role and mechanism of microbes, we combined culture-dependent and culture-independent approaches to investigate differences in gut bacterial composition between sows and weaned pigs. Under anaerobic conditions, several nonselective and selective media were used for isolation from fecal samples. All isolated bacteria were identified and classified through 16S rRNA sequencing, and the microbiota composition of the fecal samples was analyzed by metagenomics using next generation sequencing (NGS) technology. A total of 278 and 149 colonies were acquired from the sow and weaned pig fecal samples, respectively. Culturomics analysis revealed that diverse bacterial genus and species belonged to Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Bacteroidetes were isolated from sow and weaned pigs. When comparing culture-dependent and culture-independent analyses, 191 bacterial species and 2 archaeal bacterial species were detected through culture-independent analysis, and a total of 23 bacteria were isolated through a culture-dependent approach, of which 65% were not detected by metagenomics. In conclusion, culturomics and metagenomics should be properly combined to fully understand the intestinal microbiota, and livestock-derived microbial resources should be informed by culturomic approaches to understand and utilize the mechanism of host-microbe interactions.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.231-237
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• 2007

The microbial eco-physiology has been the vital key of microbial ecological research. Unfortunately, available methods for direct identity of microorganisms and for the investigation of their activity in complicated community dynamics are limited. In this study, metagenomics was considered as a promising functional genomics tool for improving our understanding of microbial eco-physiology. Its potential applications and challenges were also reviewed. Because of tremendous diversity in microbial populations in environment, sequence analysis for whole metagenomic libraries from environmental samples seems to be unrealistic to most of environmental engineering researchers. When a target function is of interest, however, sequence analysis for whole metagenomic libraries would not be necessary. For this case, nucleic acids of active populations of interest can be selectively gained using another cutting-edge functional genomic tool, SIP (stable isotope probing) technique. If functional genomes isolated by SIP can be transferred into metagenomic library, sequence analysis for such selected functional genomes would be feasible because the reduced size of clone library may become adequate for sequencing analysis. Herein, integration of metagenomics with SIP was suggested as a novel functional genomics approach to study microbial eco-physiology in environment.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.30 no.11
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• pp.1515-1528
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• 2017

The gastrointestinal (GI) tract, including the rumen and the other intestinal segments of cattle, harbors a diverse, complex, and dynamic microbiome that drives feed digestion and fermentation in cattle, determining feed efficiency and output of pollutants. This microbiome also plays an important role in affecting host health. Research has been conducted for more than a century to understand the microbiome and its relationship to feed efficiency and host health. The traditional cultivation-based research elucidated some of the major metabolism, but studies using molecular biology techniques conducted from late 1980's to the late early 2000's greatly expanded our view of the diversity of the rumen and intestinal microbiome of cattle. Recently, metagenomics has been the primary technology to characterize the GI microbiome and its relationship with host nutrition and health. This review addresses the main methods/techniques in current use, the knowledge gained, and some of the challenges that remain. Most of the primers used in quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction quantification and diversity analysis using metagenomics of ruminal bacteria, archaea, fungi, and protozoa were also compiled.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.850-855
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• 2013

Finding new antimicrobial activities by functional metagenomics has been shown to depend on the heterologous host used to express the foreign DNA. Therefore, efforts are devoted to developing new tools for constructing metagenomic libraries in shuttle vectors replicatable in phylogenetically distinct hosts. Here we evaluated the use of the Escherichia coli-Bacillus subtilis shuttle vector pHT01 to construct a forest-soil metagenomic library. This library was screened in both hosts for antimicrobial activities against four opportunistic bacteria: Proteus vulgaris, Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Micrococcus luteus. A new antibacterial activity against B. cereus was found upon screening in B. subtilis. The new antimicrobial agent, sensitive to proteinase K, was not active when the corresponding DNA fragment was expressed in E. coli. Our results validate the use of pHT01 as a shuttle vector and B. subtilis as a host to isolate new activities by functional metagenomics.