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Microbiome Analysis

Microbes are the invisible backbone of life. They form the largest biomass on the planet after plants. In almost any natural process, microbes are critical and are relied on by several industries. Our microbiome analysis offers you an in-depth look into these communities, helping you to understand and optimize these processes.

What are Microbioms?

Microbiome is a community of different microorganisms that interact with each other and with the surrounding environment. These microorganisms, like bacteria, archaea, fungi, protozoans, and viruses, are tiny living organisms that can be found in everywhere like deep-sea and agriculture soils, artic and tropical environments. Each habitat has a specific microbiome.
The microbiome is the most important player in ecosystems being the drivers of several biochemical processes namely the nutrient mineralization, nitrogen fixation, carbon sequestration and degradation of organic compounds. These processes contribute to sustain the health of any ecosystem. Microorganisms are also responsible for many industrial processes in the field of energy, mining and environment. Due their metabolic versatility, they can contribute to produce biogas, extract metals from mines, remediate polluted sites and treat wastewaters. Microbiome characterization is performed using molecular tools namely the untargeted metagenomic analysis or a target analysis using qPCR.

How does Microbiome Analysis work?

For most of our microbiome studies, we deploy metagenomics workflows through Next Generation Sequencing (NGS). Metagenomics is the study of the genetic material (genomes) from a mixed community of organisms. It is usually done by a technique called metabarcoding that looks at variations in specific DNA sequences to identify different species in a sample.
NGS is a technique which allows for in depth sequencing of numerous small fragments of DNA in parallel. Due to this parallel approach, the automatic detection of the nucleotides and the possibility of computers to process and reorganize large amounts of data, NGS has become the fastest and most cost-effective method for sequencing DNA.
With this technology, we can detect all microbial species or taxonomic groups in virtually any sample type, allowing the characterization of the composition, abundance and diversity of the microorganisms that compose any microbiome. Through the use of bioinformatics and data analysis tools, we then use the data generated by NGS to compare different conditions and samples, both in terms of their microbial composition and in terms of their metabolic potential.
The microbiome characterization can also be performed by targeting a specific organism using the qPCR technology. With this approach, we can detect and monitor the microorganism of interest, such as the iron-oxidizing bacteria in bioleaching processes and sulphate-reducing bacteria in microbial- induced corrosion.

Why choose Microbiome Analysis from SGS?

We enable you to:

  • Get the most out of any sample as we have experience with various sample types and developed tailored DNA extraction protocols with multiple quality control steps
  • Target various regions of 16S rRNA to evaluate microbiomes with our metabarcoding services. We also support other gene targets like ITS, COI, etc. We also offer various sequencing workflows, such as shotgun, targeted gene sequencing and long-range PCR
  • Enjoy bespoke bioinformatics pipelines and statistical outputs and indexes or further annotation, using our proprietary microbial traits (MIRAS) database
  • Gain targeted quantification through various methods, ranging from RT-qPCR, ddPCR, enzymatic and culture method
  • Get support in sample acquisition for various environments, like deep marine sediment to indoor surface swabs, with our global network of field sampling teams
  • Gain technical expertise and consultancy from our Global Biosciences Center experts and MIRAS teams

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  • SGS Global Biosciences Center

1 Place des Alpes,

P.O. Box 2152,

1211, Geneva, Switzerland