{"670443":{"#nid":"670443","#data":{"type":"external_news","title":"Unraveling the functional dark matter through global metagenomics","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMetagenomes encode an enormous diversity of proteins, reflecting a multiplicity of functions and activities. Exploration of this vast sequence space has been limited to a comparative analysis against reference microbial genomes and protein families derived from those genomes. Here, to examine the scale of yet untapped functional diversity beyond what is currently possible through the lens of reference genomes, a team of scientists has developed a computational approach to generate reference-free protein families from the sequence space in metagenomes. The researchers include \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\/people\/joel-kostka\u0022\u003EJoel Kostka\u003C\/a\u003E, professor and Associate Chair of Research in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\u0022\u003ESchool of Biological Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;(part of the Novel Metagenome Protein Families Consortium), and\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ce.gatech.edu\/directory\/person\/kostas-t-konstantinidis\u0022\u003EKostas T. Konstantinidis\u003C\/a\u003E, Richard C. Tucker Professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ce.gatech.edu\u0022\u003ESchool of Civil and Environmental Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;(This research was also covered at \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/newscenter.lbl.gov\/2023\/10\/11\/doubling-down-on-known-protein-families\/\u0022\u003EBerkeley Lab\u003C\/a\u003E.)\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMetagenomes encode an enormous diversity of proteins, reflecting a multiplicity of functions and activities. Exploration of this vast sequence space has been limited to a comparative analysis against reference microbial genomes and protein families derived from those genomes. Here, to examine the scale of yet untapped functional diversity beyond what is currently possible through the lens of reference genomes, a team of scientists has developed a computational approach to generate reference-free protein families from the sequence space in metagenomes. The researchers include \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\/people\/joel-kostka\u0022\u003EJoel Kostka\u003C\/a\u003E, professor and Associate Chair of Research in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\u0022\u003ESchool of Biological Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;(part of the Novel Metagenome Protein Families Consortium), and\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ce.gatech.edu\/directory\/person\/kostas-t-konstantinidis\u0022\u003EKostas T. Konstantinidis\u003C\/a\u003E, Richard C. Tucker Professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ce.gatech.edu\u0022\u003ESchool of Civil and Environmental Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E. (This research was also covered at \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/newscenter.lbl.gov\/2023\/10\/11\/doubling-down-on-known-protein-families\/\u0022\u003EBerkeley Lab\u003C\/a\u003E.)\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"34434","created_gmt":"2023-10-16 15:56:56","changed_gmt":"2023-10-16 16:11:12","author":"Renay San Miguel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","publication":"Nature ","field_article_url":"","publication_url":"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-023-06583-7","dateline":{"date":"2023-10-11T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2023-10-11T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"1275","name":"School of Biological Sciences"}],"categories":[{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"4896","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"166882","name":"School of Biological Sciences"},{"id":"167864","name":"School of Civil and Environmental Engineering"},{"id":"20131","name":"Joel Kostka"},{"id":"12758","name":"Kostas Konstantinidis"},{"id":"11383","name":"proteins"},{"id":"172828","name":"metagenomics"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}