The goal of the work is to improve understanding of overall species diversity and build the foundation for a longer-term strategy of generating new technologies for livestock and plant-based industries, the partners said.
The Venter Institute will use whole genome shotgun sequencing to characterize microorganisms and describe environmental diversity. The collaborators hope to create an inventory of the microorganisms and their gene complements, as well as to discover and characterize new species of bacteria and viruses at the genomic level.