Archive | 2021
Metagenomics and Metatranscriptomics Approaches in Understanding and Discovering Novel Molecules in Rhizosphere Environment
Abstract
Rhizosphere microbiome is a diverse and dynamic communities affecting both plant health and nutrition. A better understanding of these ecosystems however remain uncharted owing to lack of tools that facilitate comprehensive profiling of microbial communities and processes which are largely constituted by uncultivable subset. Recent advances in molecular biology techniques that include metagenomics and metatranscriptomics facilitate whole community level characterization of gene diversity and their expression patterns, respectively. While metagenomics focuses on meta-analysis of structural and functional gene contents of microbial communities in various environment niches, metatranscriptomics focuses on meta-analysis of expressed genes under set of environmental conditions. These omics technologies are new and comprehensive approaches to system biology that integrate multiple-datasets, both these techniques have shed novel insights about the community activity and responses. This chapter discusses the utilization of these tools and techniques in understanding microbial interaction networks, communications, and the chemical diversity in the rhizosphere.