CORRESPONDENCE Microbes, metagenomes a t

Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleBackground The sequencing of the human genome in 2001 marked the beginning of the genomic era [1,2] and since then se-quencing technology has undergone major improvements and cost reductions [3,4]. The “next generation of se-quencers ” enables the sequencing of an ever increasing range of genomes quickly, cheaply and with a high degree of accuracy. Bold sequencing projects, such as the 1,000 bacteria genomes, and the 10,000 vertebrate genomes are revolutionizing life science research and medicine. In medicine, the community is preparing for personal, whole human genomes to become a part of routine care, while a trend to sequence gene panels in human increase until this happens. Even the effects of the human microbial commu-nity on human health have been described by DNA se-quencing [5-7]. In the environmental sciences, microbes have been identified that are associated with different eco-logical processes, and the functional profile of microbial communities can be compared across environments [8,9]