Metagenomics

Searching for antibiotics in Puerto Rican soil

Simón Antonio Hernández's picture

In November 2014 I found myself drenched in rainwater at the Humacao Nature Reserve collecting soil samples… well, more like mud samples. It was my first morning in Puerto Rico and it had been raining since my arrival. Yet the University of Puerto Rico students accompanying me were determined to fill their conical tubes with soil, at all costs. Our goal: to discover new antibiotic producers in the soil.

Curso de Metagenómica en Estación Biológica Kellog - Solicita!

Giovanna Guerrero-Medina's picture

Se estima que sólo conocemos el 1% de toda la diversidad de microrganismos que existen en el planeta Tierra. Con la introducción de técnicas de Metagenómica, finalmente tenemos buenas herramientas para explorar la fauna microbiana y encontrar nuevos micro-organismos para remediación ambiental, producción de antibióticos, desarrollo de nuevas tecnologías energéticas, etc.

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Metagenomics of the Puerto Rican Soil

Marcos Lopez's picture
El Yunque
El Yunque National Forest. One of the sampling sites of GeMS.

Although we are in a constant war to get rid of them, we have always lived in a world dominated by microbes. Interestingly, there is a new science field that aims to reveal the secrets of the microbial planet, but not as a tactic of war. Even though we donít pay a lot of attention to our microscopic friends, the microbial communities support all life of Earth, even ours. For this cause, understanding the characteristics of this unexplored microbial world may help us to solve many of the environmental, medical, biotechnological, energetical, and economical challenges of the world. The name of this new science is Metagenomics.

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