Matthew Schechter: Metagenomics History Part 2

The Bioinformatics and Beyond Podcast

In this second part of our history of metagenomics with Matthew Schechter, we start with a description of what a metagenome contains and how you analyze this type of data. Matt explains a few high level concepts such as metagenome assembly, metagenomic assembled genomes, contigs, contig binning, and genome completeness. Matt explains how metagenomics can help answer previously unanswered questions and even generate new hypotheses like in the example of the Candidate Phyla Radiation. Matt further explains how metagenomics is unbiased when compared to 16S sequencing and what his vision is for “Metagenomics 3.0.” Further topics discussed include pangenomics, further ways metagenomics can generate new hypotheses, and metapangenomics. Read Matt's full article of the history of metagenomics at https://merenlab.org/2020/07/27/history-of-metagenomics/