Genome-Resolved Metagenomics Is Essential for Unlocking the Microbial Black Box of the Soil

Leandro Nascimento Lemos¹, Lucas William Mendes², Petr Baldrian³, Victor Satler Pylro^3,4

National Laboratory for Scientific Computing (LNCC), Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Abstract

Despite several efforts to unravel the microbial diversity of soil, most microbes are still unknown. A recent large-scale effort based on genome-resolved metagenomics by Nayfach et al. has demonstrated how this approach can expand our understanding of novel bacterial lineages, including those from soils. Genomic catalogs of soil microbiomes are now enabling a deeper investigation of the evolutionary and functional role of high-complex soil microbiomes, promoting new knowledge from the reuse and sharing of multi-omics data.