title: Bridging the knowledge gap: from   microbiome composition to function.
abstract: Despite the wealth of metagenomic sequencing data, the functions of most bacterial genes from the mammalian microbiota have remained poorly understood. In their recent study (Yaung et al 2015), Wang, Gerber, and colleagues present a platform which allows functional mining of bacterial genomes for genes that contribute to fitness in vivo and holds great potential for forward engineering microbes with enhanced colonization abilities in the microbiota.
authors.forename: Jeremiah J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Faith
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001439:Bacteroides / Q000235:genetics*; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000382:microbiology*; D056186:Metagenomics / Q000379:methods*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000379:methods*