ABSTRACT
For several decades, analyses of microbial communities were performed through laboratory cultivation techniques. With advances in molecular methods, analyses of prokaryotic communities from the environment started to be performed using different techniques, and the era of direct sequencing of environmental DNA (eDNA) began. This approach is known as metagenomics, and the extracted DNA sample will contain the genetic information of extremely complex communities, with hundreds and sometimes thousands of microbial species (Handelsman 2004).
