Work

Environmental community transcriptomics: strategies and struggles

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Transcriptomics is the study of RNA transcripts, the portion of the genome that is transcribed, in a specific cell, tissue, or organism. Transcriptomics provides insight into gene expression patterns, regulation, and the underlying mechanisms of cellular processes. Community transcriptomics takes this a step further by studying the RNA transcripts from environmental assemblies of organisms, with the intention of better understanding the interactions between members of the community. Community transcriptomics requires successful extraction of RNA from a diverse set of organisms and subsequent analysis via mapping those reads to a reference genome or de novo assembly of the reads. Both, extraction protocols and the analysis steps can pose hurdles for community transcriptomics. This review covers advances in transcriptomic techniques and assesses the viability of applying them to community transcriptomics.

Source: Briefings in Functional Genomics

DOI: 10.1093/bfgp/elae033

Authors: Jeanet Mante, Kyra E Groover, Randi M Pullen

Institutions: Oak Ridge Associated Universities, The University of Texas at Austin, DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory, United States Army Combat Capabilities Development Command

Language: English

Topic: Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies

Subfield: Molecular Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: Army Research Laboratory

Award: G8925651127