Rights statement: This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2017
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Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Final published version
Licence: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
<mark>Journal publication date</mark> | 05/2017 |
---|---|
<mark>Journal</mark> | Integrative Biology |
Issue number | 5 |
Volume | 9 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Pages (from-to) | 406-417 |
Publication Status | Published |
Early online date | 27/04/17 |
<mark>Original language</mark> | English |
There is an increasing need to investigate microbiomes in their entirety in a variety of contexts ranging from environmental to human health scenarios. This requirement is becoming increasingly important with the emergence of antibiotic resistance. In general, more conventional approaches are too expensive and/or time-consuming and often predicated on prior knowledge of the microorganisms one wishes to study. Herein, we propose the use of biospectroscopy tools as relatively high-throughput, non-destructive approaches to profile microbiomes under study. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) or Raman spectroscopy both generate fingerprint spectra of biological material and such spectra can readily be subsequently classed according to biochemical changes in the microbiota, such as emergence of antibiotic resistance. FTIR spectroscopy techniques generally can only be applied to desiccated material whereas Raman approaches can be applied to more hydrated samples. The ability to readily fingerprint microbiomes could lend itself to new approaches in determining microbial behaviours and emergence of antibiotic resistance.