The great screen anomaly, the new frontier in functional metagenomics

Ekkers, D.M. (2011) The great screen anomaly, the new frontier in functional metagenomics. Bachelor's Thesis, Biology.

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Abstract

Functional metagenomics is the study of collective genomes of uncultured organisms from the environment, by expressing these collective genomes in host organisms. Due to introduction of new genomics techniques, advances have been made in the field of functional metagenomics. Despite these advances, metagenomic exploration is hampered by the inability to effectively express and screen the metagenome. This paper summarizes the major bottlenecks in functional assignment of metagenomes at present time. Providing an overview of the general metagenomic assessment strategy, with a focus on the challenges that are met in the screening for and selection of genes from metagenomic libraries. To identify possible screening limitations, the expression process is reviewed from the transcription level all the way to the secretion of the gene product. Special attention is paid on aspects of codon bias usage. Three major hurdles in functional metagenomics are identified. 1) The difficulty to extract and amplify DNA of sufficient length, quality and representiveness from the environment. 2) The inability to successfully express a large part of metagenomic libraries in hosts. 3) The selection and screening for hosts that are expressing metagenomic library inserts of interest.

Item Type:	Thesis (Bachelor's Thesis)
Degree programme:	Biology
Thesis type:	Bachelor's Thesis
Language:	English
Date Deposited:	15 Feb 2018 07:45
Last Modified:	15 Feb 2018 07:45
URI:	https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/9603

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