Prokaryotic Metatranscriptomics

Metatranscriptomics, the determination of RNA transcripts found in a microbiome, is a very active field nowadays. Improvements both in sequencing technologies and in software for analysis have made metatranscriptomics a very amenable technique, soon to be routinely used. In this chapter, we illustrate the steps needed to perform a metatranscriptomic experiment, from the collection of the samples to the production of the final results. The full protocol is composed of wet-lab procedures for preparing and sequencing the samples, and in silico, bioinformatic techniques to process and analyze the results.