Abstract

Metagenomics is the study of genetic material recovered directly from environmental samples, such as soil, water, or gut contents, without the need for isolation or cultivation of individual organisms. Metagenomics binning is a process used to classify DNA sequences obtained from metagenomic sequencing into discrete groups, or bins, based on their similarity to each other.

About This Material

This is a Hands-on Tutorial from the GTN which is usable either for individual self-study, or as a teaching material in a classroom.

Questions this will address

• What is metagenomic binning refers to?
• Which tools should be used for metagenomic binning?
• How to assess the quality of metagenomic data binning?

Learning Objectives

• Describe what metagenomics binning is
• Describe common problems in metagenomics binning
• What software tools are available for metagenomics binning
• Binning of contigs into metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) using MetaBAT 2 software
• Evaluation of MAG quality and completeness using CheckM software