Linking microbiome to eco-industrial function: the in silico and metagenomic exploration of microbial dark matter and taxonomic blind spots – Year two

The collection of bacteria and archaea in an ecosystem is termed the microbiome. This microbiome is critically important to the structure and function of essentially any ecosystem, providing many ecosystem services, such as growth promotion, nutrient turnover, and impacts on organismal health. The vast majority of these organisms, however, are unknown to science for a variety of reasons. Recent advances in high-throughput DNA and RNA sequencing of environmental samples provide a significant data resource to help understand these organisms. These data provide a meaningful target for data intensive biological research with tremendous scientific and industrial application. This research program seeks to apply techniques of data intensive biology to these environmental sequencing data to provide an understanding the role of metabolic, functional, and taxonomic affiliations in ecosystem services. TO BE CONT’D

Faculty Supervisor:

Andrew Doxey

Student:

Michael Lynch

Partner:

University of Waterloo

Discipline:

Biology

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

Program: