2016 SIMB Annual Meeting and Exhibition

Wastewater generated from municipal and industrial sources is both an environmental challenge and an opportunity for biotechnological innovation. Microbial communities are central to the processing of wastewater and controlling the dynamics and outputs of these wastewater communities is critical to harnessing the potential of wastewater. Recent advances in metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and metaproteomics have provided important new insights into the functioning of these communities and provided an important testing ground for new methods in ‘omics technologies. A key insight of these ‘omics methods is the important role that uncultivated microbes play in the wastewater communities. In this session, we will explore the application of ‘omics technologies to wastewater treatment and highlight the functional roles of uncultivated microbial populations.