ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the classic technologies and methods being used to identify microorganisms in the laboratory today. Some of these can trace their lineage as far back as the 19th century. The advent of 21st-century technologies, such as next-generation sequencing and metagenomics, has challenged that concept even further. The ability to perform rapid nucleic acid sequencing, combined with the fields of genomics and microbiology, has led to the birth of metagenomics. In a very simplified description, total DNA is extracted from all of the organisms in an environment. Metagenomics has allowed scientists to identify microorganisms in a sample that cannot be cultured. In addition, it has given scientists the ability to not only study specific genomes, but also see how those genomes might interact with each other in a biome. Traditionally, after a sample arrives in the clinical microbiology laboratory, it is incubated in various media and under different conditions, depending upon the sample source.
