In the context of 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing, which approach allows for the identification of microbial taxa without the need for culture methods?

The approach that lets you identify microbial taxa without culturing is called culture‑independent 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. It works by extracting all DNA from a sample, amplifying the 16S rRNA gene with universal primers, and then sequencing the PCR products. Because the primers bind to a conserved region of the gene, every bacterial species present in the sample is represented in the sequencing data. Bioinformatics pipelines then match each sequence to a database to assign taxonomic names, revealing the community composition. For example, a stool sample can be processed this way to show that it contains both Bacteroides and Lactobacillus without ever growing the bacteria in a lab.