Metagenomics

Social and Political Issues.

Metagenomics is new and considered a breakthrough in the microbiology world, and there is a reason for this. Before this, microbiologists only managed to study microorganisms that could be cultured. With the diversity of microbes on Earth, the traditional way forced microbiologists to premise that microorganisms did not exits unless they could be cultured. Nonetheless, scientists never gave up to explore the world beyond their imagination. Their wish to explore the unseen world was granted with the recent breakthrough of metagenomics. Metagenomics is defined in literature as the genomic analysis of assemblages of organisms. In English, it can be redefined as the ability to clone DNA directly from the microbe's environment (for example, soil) into a culturable host for sequencing and functional genomic analysis. By sequencing conserved regions in microorganisms, scientists can learn more about the new microbes lineages in relation to known microbes. This piece of information is important to learn about new microbes' potential functions in the scientific world.

An organism like this can easily be seen by scientists by zooming in to the world of the mirco.

http://microbialmodus.wordpress.com/2011/02/01/microbes-make-it-snow/

Also, the application of metagenomics opens up opportunities to microbiologists to study microorganisms that cannot be cultured in agar medium due to extreme living requirements. For example, organisms in Yellowstone hot springs. It is changing the scientific community for the better.

As a political and social impact many companies from drug companies to industrial companies have bin very interested in the research of Metagenomics, Because of the future investments made on these researchers are high. To find the new things in the ground a bacteria that could glow pink to a new organism transformed by biotechnology into something great. A lot of money can and will come from Metagenomics in the years to come. Since are nation is trying to go green even more money is coming in federal money is coming in to research and to find out as much as we can about all the organisms living right under our feet.