genetics

Cloning the Metagenome to Access the Biodiversity of Unculturable Bacteria

Metagenomics constitutes the sequence based analysis of the collective microbial genomes (microbiome) in a particular environment. It provides culture independent access to the gene pool of whole microbial community. The variety of laboratory culturing methods when fail to culture the unculturable bacteria, tools of metagenomics are applied to reveal their existence in a given environment. Metagenomics tools deal mainly with the direct isolation of genetic material from a defined ecological habitat (soil or marine) and cloning of the complete genome of the entire microbial population.

Forward and Reverse Genetic Tools for Investigating Gene Function

Genetics and molecular genomic approaches have been changed our perception towards biological processes. Reverse genetics describes the “gene to phenotype”approach, with which functions of a gene of interest can be examined by disrupting the gene expression at physiological level. Forward genetics is a “phenotype to gene” approach with which genes involved in a biological pathway can be identified through the screening of populations that contain random modifications throughout the genome, altering the gene function.