GPS principle

[Home]

The GPS principle

The central idea behind MicrobeGPS is what we call the GPS principle. The term GPS refers to the Global Positioning System, where you use the known positions of satellites to calculate your own position.

In the metagenomics world, we use known and characterized reference genome sequences as satellites. By measuring the 'distance' between an unknown organism in the metagenome and the available reference genomes, we are able to estimate the taxonomic 'location' of the unknown organism. As for the GPS in the sky, the MicrobeGPS only works if sufficient satellites (genomes) are available. Otherwise, the estimated position will be inaccurate.