Читать книгу The Power Of Youth. How To Tune Our Mind And Body For A Long And Healthy Life - Андрей Фоменко - Страница 15

Sequencing technology has opened new horizons not only for geneticists but also for microbiologists. Previously, scientists could only study the genome of microorganisms that could be grown on a nutrient medium. Due to sequencing, it is now possible to obtain information about microbes with only their DNA, RNA, or even fragments of genetic material. The development of this technology led to the appearance of a new branch of molecular genetics – metagenomics.

In this discipline, experts do not study the genes of specific cells within a body or in microbial cells, but rather the metagenome – the set of all the genes in any given sample.

Samples for subsequent metagenomic analysis can be obtained from different areas of the human body: oral, intestinal, and vagina metagenome. It can also be samples obtained from the environment. For example, in 2003, scientists used the sequencing method for metagenomic analysis of ocean water samples obtained from different parts of the planet[27]. As a result, only in a sample from the Sargasso Sea, experts found about two thousand DNA samples of different species, including 148 bacteria previously unknown to science.

The study of the metagenome helps not just to perform a genetic analysis of microbes, but to understand the laws of microbial communities, and to define their mutual influences and metabolic chains. It allows us to get a better understanding of life in the microcosm inside us and around us.