Microbial dark matter sequences verification in amplicon sequencing and environmental metagenomics data.

ABSTRACT: Although microorganisms constitute the most diverse and abundant life form on Earth, in many environments, the vast majority of them remain uncultured. As it is based on information gleaned mainly from cultivated microorganisms, our current body of knowledge regarding microbial life is partial and does not reflect actual microbial diversity. That diversity is hidden in the uncultured microbial majority, termed by microbiologists as "microbial dark matter" (MDM), a term borrowed from astrophysics. Metagenomic sequencing analysis techniques (both 16S rRNA gene and shotgun sequencing) compare gene sequences to reference databases, each of which represents only a small fraction of the existing microorganisms. Unaligned sequences lead to groups of "unknown microorganisms" that are usually ignor

SUBMITTER: Barak H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10656735 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature