Journal Article
mBio, vol. 11, iss. 4, 2020
Authors
Dan Naylor, Sarah Fansler, Colin Brislawn, William C. Nelson, Kirsten S. Hofmockel, Janet K. Jansson, Ryan McClure, Caroline S. Harwood
Abstract
The taxonomic and functional diversity inherent to the soil microbiome complicate assessments of the metabolic potential carried out by the community members. An alternative approach is to break down the soil microbiome into reduced-complexity subsets based on metabolic capacities (functional modules) prior to sequencing and analysis. Here, we demonstrate that this approach successfully identified specific phylogenetic and biochemical traits of the soil microbiome that otherwise remained hidden from a more top-down analysis.
