Molecular Methods for Studying the Human Microbiota

ABSTRACT

Vast array of microbes colonize to each anatomical environment of human body. Culture based methods are important in investigating the microbial structure, but they are extremely biased in their evaluation of microbial diversity by selecting particular population of microbiota. Recent advance in molecular technology has allowed sophisticated analysis of complex human microbiota by culture-independent methods. Here, we will discuss features of tools for human microbiota studies including Roche-454 and Illumina platform. We will also briefly discuss features of some strategies that are commonly applied to these platforms including 16S rRNA targeting and shotgun sequencing. New platforms such as PacBio and Oxford Nanopore are also introduced.