Advances in environmental genomics:: towards an integrated view of micro-organisms and ecosystems

Microbial genome sequencing has, for the first time, made accessible all the components needed for both the elaboration and the functioning of a cell. Associated with other global methods such as protein and mRNA profiling, genomics; has considerably extended our knowledge of physiological processes and their diversity not only in human, animal and plant pathogens but also in environmental isolates. At a higher level of complexity, the so-called meta approaches have recently shown great promise in investigating microbial communities, including uncultured micro-organisms. Combined with classical methods of physico-chemistry and microbiology, these endeavours should provide us with an integrated view of how micro-organisms adapt to particular ecological niches and participate in the dynamics of ecosystems.