Environmental and Agricultural Metagenomics

SCRR Forum

Wednesday October 2, 2013

UPDATE: please see below for event report.

Metagenomics is a new area of research and innovation which studies the genetic code of multiple species extracted directly from environmental samples of diverse kinds. It crosses molecular biology, informatics, ecology, soil, water and other environmental sciences.

There are now several international initiatives in this area; for example, The Human Microbiome Project has shown the importance of understanding the microbiome that is associated with every macroorganism.

The objectives of this forum are to raise awareness of the opportunities and benefits of these approaches for agriculture and the environment in Scotland. It builds on previous workshops and updated attendees on the latest technologies, new scientific frontiers and the range of potential applications and benefits for answering the important questions we have about agriculture, biodiversity, environmental well-being and conservation.

Venue: Battleby Conference Centre, Perth

Event report

Presentations from this event are now available to download.

Questions to address, and replies (PDF, 50KB)

Applications of metagenomics to gut microbial communities (PDF, 42KB)

Harry J Flint, Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Aberdeen

Microbes in soil (PDF, 34KB)

Thomas Freitag, James Hutton Institute, Aberdeen

Which scientific questions can be addressed using soil metagenomics? (PDF, 61KB)

Jim Prosser, The University of Aberdeen

Diversity in fungal communities (PDF, 27KB)

Andy Taylor, The James Hutton Institute

Environmental and Agricultural Metagenomics: Crops Perspective (PDF, 38KB)

Ian Toth, James Hutton Institute, Dundee

Deep metagenomic sequencing of multiple ruminant guts reveals species-specific microbiomes (PDF, 29KB)

Mick Watson (ARK-Genomics, The Roslin Institute) and John Wallace (Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, Aberdeen)