The use of high‐throughput DNA sequencing (HTS) has revolutionized the assessment of biodiversity in plant and animal communities. There are two main approaches to estimate the identity and the relative species abundance (RSA) in complex mixtures using HTS: amplicon metabarcoding and shotgun metagenomics. While amplicon metabarcoding targets one or a few genomic regions, shotgun metagenomics randomly explores the genome of the species. In this issue of Molecular Ecology Resources, Wagemaker et al. (2021) present a new method, multi‐species Genotyping by Sequencing (msGBS), as an alternative middle ground between metabarcoding and metagenomics. They apply the technique to mixtures of plant roots and report the remarkable capacity of msGBS to estimate the RSA. If validated in other laboratories and biological communities, msGBS might become a third method to explore the biodiversity of biological communities, especially of plants, where current techniques are struggling to get sufficient taxonomic resolution.

中文翻译：

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通过测序进行基因分型：一种用于评估真核生物多样性的扩增子宏条形码和鸟枪宏基因组学的替代新方法

高通量 DNA 测序 (HTS) 的使用彻底改变了植物和动物群落生物多样性的评估。使用 HTS 估计复杂混合物中的身份和相对物种丰度 (RSA) 的主要方法有两种：扩增子宏条形码和鸟枪宏基因组学。扩增子宏条形码针对一个或几个基因组区域，而鸟枪宏基因组学则随机探索物种的基因组。在本期分子生态资源，Wagemaker 等。(2021) 提出了一种新方法，即多物种基因分型测序 (msGBS)，作为元条形码和宏基因组学之间的替代中间立场。他们将该技术应用于植物根的混合物，并报告了 msGBS 估计 RSA 的非凡能力。如果在其他实验室和生物群落中得到验证，msGBS 可能成为探索生物群落生物多样性的第三种方法，尤其是植物，目前的技术正在努力获得足够的分类分辨率。