Metagenomics allows exploration of aspects of a microbial community that were inaccessible by cultivation-based approaches targeting single microbes. Many new microbial taxa and genes have been discovered using metagenomics, but different kinds of “unknowns” still remain in a microbiome experiment. We discuss here whether and how it is possible to deal with them.

中文翻译：

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微生物组研究中未知的多个层面

元基因组学允许探索微生物群体的某些方面，而这些方面是针对单个微生物的基于耕种的方法所无法实现的。使用宏基因组学已经发现了许多新的微生物分类群和基因，但是微生物组实验中仍然存在各种“未知数”。我们在这里讨论是否以及如何处理它们。