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Nature Biotechnology 26, 1029–1034 (1 September 2008) | doi:10.1038/nbt.1488

High-resolution metagenomics targets specific functional types in complex microbial communities

Marina G Kalyuzhnaya , Alla Lapidus , Natalia Ivanova , Alex C Copeland , Alice C McHardy , Ernest Szeto , Asaf Salamov , Igor V Grigoriev , Dominic Suciu , Samuel R Levine , Victor M Markowitz , Isidore Rigoutsos , Susannah G Tringe , David C Bruce , Paul M Richardson , Mary E Lidstrom & Ludmila Chistoserdova

Most microbes in the biosphere remain unculturable. Whole genome shotgun (WGS) sequencing of environmental DNA (metagenomics) can be used to study the genetic and metabolic properties of natural microbial communities.