Thursday, July 26, 2007

"The New Science of Metagenomics: Revealing the Secrets of Our Microbial Planet"

The National Academy of Sciences has created a new website, titled Metagenomics & Our Microbial Planet. In metagenomics, the power of genomic analysis (the analysis of all the DNA in an organism) is applied to entire communities of microbes, bypassing the need to isolate and culture individual microbial species.

A National Research Council report, titled The New Science of Metagenomics: Revealing the Secrets of Our Microbial Planet (2007), describes the promises and challenges of metagenomics.

Metagenomics is expected to vastly enhance our knowledge of microbial communities and could lead to practical applications in:

Human Health
Earth Science and Global Change
Agriculture
Environmental Remediation
Energy
...and more!

Understanding Our Microbial Planet, an educational booklet derived from that report, provides basic information on metagenomics for the general audience.

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