Microbial Genomics

Microbial Genomics

Microbial Genomics sequencing using long read and short read sequencing is a technique that has been developed to improve the accuracy of identifying microbial strains. In the past, most microbial detection methods used culture-based techniques which had serious limitations. For example, only a small percentage of microbes could be cultured, many species are fastidious and cannot be cultured at all, and some species are very difficult to grow in pure culture. Also, it often took weeks or months to get results from these methods. These problems led to the development of molecular methods for detection of microbes which could be used regardless of whether the organisms could be cultured or not. The first of these was polymerase chain reaction (PCR) which is still widely used today. However, PCR has several disadvantages including its reliance on template DNA which may not be available in all samples, as well as the need for primers specific to the target organism which can be difficult to design. In recent years, whole genome sequencing (WGS) has emerged as a powerful tool for microbial detection. WGS overcomes many of the limitations of PCR by providing complete genomic information which can be used to detect even fastidious or unculturable organisms. In addition, the rapid turnaround time and high throughput capability of WGS make it an attractive option for microbial detection in both clinical and environmental settings.