Metagenomics and Pandemic Viruses

Abstract

Humanity’s history contains many pandemic reports and now the scientific community has the possibility to identify the pathogens before the disease emergency. In this perspective, it is essential to carry out large-scale epidemiological studies in key animals that are in constant contact with humans. For this, the next generation sequencing (NGS) by the metagenomic approach—genetic material recovered directly from samples without previous amplification—is able to reveal the hidden microbial diversity. Metagenomes’ work aims to contribute to the facilitation of epidemiological studies through the adoption of simple effective strategies for the pathogens’ identification, understanding the evolutionary dynamic of them before the pandemic time. Here, we have presented some examples related to the successful metagenomic approaches and the continuous advice of the researchers to identify viruses and other possible pandemic pathogens.