Metagenomics &
Microbiomics
Metagenomics is the analysis of DNA fragments derived from all organisms present in a sample, as for example from soil, water, biofilms, buccal swabs or feces and is the most comprehensive method to analyse for example the human microbiome.
To obtain a representative spectrum of the available DNA, the samples must be carefully processed to obtain a representative portion of each genome. We apply whole-metagenome shotgun (WMS) sequencing or alternatively NGS of 16s-RNA coding regions.
The obtained sequence reads are annotated with high-performance computer clusters to all suitable sequences in the databases to identify the species present in the sample. Reads that cannot be annotated to database-entries can be de novo assembled to identify new genomes.
We provide a complete list of all identified organisms and their relative frequencies in the sample.
We provide interactive graphical representations of the microbiome and metagenome to allow for a very convenient analysis of the complex data.
Example of a human gut microbiome based on “shotgun” sequencing metagenomics:
(made using the KRONA Software, Copyright)
Metatranscriptomics
To analyze the gene activity of microbiome, we offer metatranscriptomics using adapted sensitive RNA-Seq protocols and bioinformatics.
qPCR
We also offer qPCR services for metagenomics or metatranscripts analysis and design custom primers for the detection of organisms or transcripts using an in-house primer design software pipeline for highest specificity.