Metatranscriptomic approach to understand the role of the rhizosphere microbiome: A review

Plant roots harbour diverse microorganisms that interact with each other and the plants. Rhizosphere is the region of soil, closely associated with plant root. The microbiome associated with them is termed as rhizobiome. Its studies give insights into the roles of the microorganisms in plant health. With the advancement of NGS techniques, the identification of the non-cultural species has turned out to be possible. Sequencing of the whole genomic D.N.A. (metagenomics) can easily identify the taxonomic and functional profile but identification of the active and inactive members of the microbiome is not fulfilled. Meta-transcriptomics helps in determining the active functional profile of a microbial community by identifying the genes expressed by the entire microbial community. The general workflow is sampling, RNA extraction, library preparation, sequencing, pre-processing of data, assembly, taxonomic/functional profiling and the differential expression analysis. There exist numerous challenges, that can be overcome through enhanced sequencing technologies and algorithms.