Earth Microbiome Project

Earth Microbiome Project
Formation	2010
Website	https://earthmicrobiome.org/

The Earth Microbiome Project (EMP) was an initiative founded by Janet Jansson, Jack Gilbert and Rob Knight in 2010 to collect natural samples and to analyze microbial life around the globe.^[1]

Microbes are highly abundant, diverse, and important in ecology. However, as of 2010^[update], it was estimated that the total global environmental DNA sequencing effort had produced less than 1 percent of the total DNA found in a liter of seawater or a gram of soil,^[2] and the specific interactions between microbes are largely unknown.

The EMP set out to process up to 200,000 samples in different biomes, creating a database of microbes on Earth to characterize environments and ecosystems by microbial composition and interaction.^[3]

The EMP website has not been updated in years and the project is believed to be closed.^[4]

^ Gilbert, J.A.; Jansson, J. K.; Knight, R. (2014). "The Earth Microbiome project: successes and aspirations". BMC Biology. 12 (1): 69. doi:10.1186/s12915-014-0069-1. PMC 4141107. PMID 25184604.
^ Gilbert, J. A.; Meyer, F.; Antonopoulos, D.; Balaji, P.; Brown, C. T.; Brown, C. T.; Desai, N.; Eisen, J. A.; Evers, D.; Field, D.; Feng, W.; Huson, D.; Jansson, J.; Knight, R.; Knight, J.; Kolker, E.; Konstantindis, K.; Kostka, J.; Kyrpides, N.; MacKelprang, R.; McHardy, A.; Quince, C.; Raes, J.; Sczyrba, A.; Shade, A.; Stevens, R. (2010). "Meeting Report: The Terabase Metagenomics Workshop and the Vision of an Earth Microbiome Project". Standards in Genomic Sciences. 3 (3): 243–248. doi:10.4056/sigs.1433550. PMC 3035311. PMID 21304727.
^ Gilbert, J. A.; O'Dor, R.; King, N.; Vogel, T. M. (2011). "The importance of metagenomic surveys to microbial ecology: Or why Darwin would have been a metagenomic scientist". Microbial Informatics and Experimentation. 1 (1): 5. doi:10.1186/2042-5783-1-5. PMC 3348666. PMID 22587826.
^ "Home". Earth Microbiome Project. July 11, 2024. Retrieved July 11, 2024.

[GilbertJanssonKnight2014-1] Gilbert, J.A.; Jansson, J. K.; Knight, R. (2014). "The Earth Microbiome project: successes and aspirations". BMC Biology. 12 (1): 69. doi:10.1186/s12915-014-0069-1. PMC 4141107. PMID 25184604.

[2] Gilbert, J. A.; Meyer, F.; Antonopoulos, D.; Balaji, P.; Brown, C. T.; Brown, C. T.; Desai, N.; Eisen, J. A.; Evers, D.; Field, D.; Feng, W.; Huson, D.; Jansson, J.; Knight, R.; Knight, J.; Kolker, E.; Konstantindis, K.; Kostka, J.; Kyrpides, N.; MacKelprang, R.; McHardy, A.; Quince, C.; Raes, J.; Sczyrba, A.; Shade, A.; Stevens, R. (2010). "Meeting Report: The Terabase Metagenomics Workshop and the Vision of an Earth Microbiome Project". Standards in Genomic Sciences. 3 (3): 243–248. doi:10.4056/sigs.1433550. PMC 3035311. PMID 21304727.

[GilbertDor2011-3] Gilbert, J. A.; O'Dor, R.; King, N.; Vogel, T. M. (2011). "The importance of metagenomic surveys to microbial ecology: Or why Darwin would have been a metagenomic scientist". Microbial Informatics and Experimentation. 1 (1): 5. doi:10.1186/2042-5783-1-5. PMC 3348666. PMID 22587826.

[4] "Home". Earth Microbiome Project. July 11, 2024. Retrieved July 11, 2024.

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