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A multi-omic future for microbiome studies

Nature Microbiology volume 1, Article number: 16049 (2016) Cite this article

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Integration of multiple ‘omics’ technologies will allow researchers to gain a more complete picture of the constituents and functions of microbial communities and provide far richer information for predictive modelling of community phenotypes.

Microorganisms constitute about a third of the Earth's biomass and play critical roles in sustaining life. Although results from sequence-based studies have illustrated the importance of microbial communities for human and environmental health, additional developments are still needed to fully understand their functions1. To date, the majority of sequencing studies have focused on the 16S rRNA gene as a phylogenetic marker. This approach has enabled exploration of microbial compositions in a range of sample types while bypassing the need for cultivation, allowing the identification of a vast array of microorganisms never previously isolated in culture2. Furthermore, sequencing has been used to map the locations of microorganisms inhabiting various locations of the body3, determine the identities and distributions of microorganisms inhabiting different ecosystems4,5, and fill in missing branches of the phylogenetic tree6.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Pan-omics Program that is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research (Genomic Science Program) and the Microbiomes in Transition (MinT) Laboratory Directed Research and Development Initiative at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. PNNL is a multi-program national laboratory operated by Battelle for the DOE under Contract DE-AC06-76RL01830.

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  1. Janet K. Jansson and Erin S. Baker are in the Earth and Biological Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Blvd, Richland, Washington 99352, USA.

    Janet K. Jansson & Erin S. Baker

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  1. Janet K. Jansson
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  2. Erin S. Baker
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Correspondence to Janet K. Jansson or Erin S. Baker.

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Jansson, J., Baker, E. A multi-omic future for microbiome studies. Nat Microbiol 1, 16049 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.49

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