2. Metagenomics

Metagenomics allows us to investigate the composition of a microbial community. As opposed to metataxonomics, metagenomics is used to describe a broad comprehensive genomic approach to microbiome profiling. This process usually involves Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) after the DNA is extracted from the samples. NGS produces a large volume of data in the form of short reads, from which a microbial community profile or other information can be pieced together just like gathering information from the pieces of a puzzle. Many tools and pipelines are available to deal with this kind of data. Some useful tutorials are provided subsequently.

2.1 Available tutorials

• Comprehensive metagenomic analysis from whole-genome shotgun sequencing data for microbiome studies using MetaPhlAn, GraPhlAn, LEfSe, and HUMAnN