New Application of Metagenomics and Metatranscriptomics in Environmental Microbial Research

Since metagenomics targets at DNA extracted from the environment directly and analyzes the sequence of DNA based on different purposes,it can succeed in escaping from cultivation procedures and open another door for the study of uncultured microorganisms.Metatranscriptomics emerges as a complement of metagenomics,and has become an important approach for studying functional genomics.Integrated metatranscriptomic and metagenomic analysis will help to understand microbial gene composition and expression in the complex environment,and get some new discoveries.In this paper,the concepts,advantages and research strategies of metagenomics and metatranscriptomics and their prospects in environmental microorganism were reviewed.