Functional metagenomics: a tool to gain knowledge for agronomic and veterinary sciences

The increased global demand for food production has motivated agroindustries to increase their own levels of production. Scientific efforts have contributed to improving these production systems, aiding to solve problems and establishing novel conceptual views and sustainable alternatives to cope with the increasing demand. Although microorganisms are key players in biological systems and may drive certain desired responses toward food production, little is known about the microbial communities that constitute the microbiomes associated with agricultural and veterinary activities. Understanding the diversity, structure and in situ interactions of microbes, together with how these interactions occur within microbial communities and with respect to their environments (including hosts), constitutes a major challenge with an enormous relevance for agriculture and biotechnology. The emergence of high-throughput sequencing technologies, together with novel and more accessible bioinformatics tools, has allowed researchers to learn more about the functional potential and functional activity of these microbial communities. These tools constitute a relevant approach for understanding the metabolic processes that can occur or are currently occurring in a given system and for implementing novel strategies focused on solving production problems or improving sustainability. Several ‘omics’ sciences and their applications in agriculture are discussed in this review, and the usage of functional metagenomics is proposed to achieve substantial advances for food agroindustries and veterinary sciences.