Real Time Metagenomics: Using k-mers to annotate metagenomes

Annotation of metagenomes involves comparing the individual sequence reads with a database of known sequences and assigning a unique function to each read. This is a time-consuming task that is computationally intensive (though not computationally complex). Here we present a novel approach to annotate metagenomes using unique k-mer oligopeptide sequences from 7 to 12 amino acids long. We demonstrate that k-mer-based annotations are faster and approach the sensitivity and precision of blastx-based annotations without loosing accuracy. A last-common ancestor approach was also developed to describe the members of the community.