Guest commentary: The human microbiome and the promise of clinical ecology

Abstract

Metagenomics, the application of high-throughput sequencing to nucleic acids extracted directly from environmental samples, made its debut in 2004 through two high-profile papers in Science (Sargasso Sea) and Nature (acid mine drainage). A key strength of the approach is the ability to circumvent the well-known cultivation bottleneck and lay bare the genetic blueprints of ecologically important members of the microbial community, many of which cannot be easily obtained in culture.