Towards “Tera-Terra”: Terabase Sequencing of Terrestrial Metagenomes

From a microbiological perspective, soil is largely unexplored even though we know it has a rich diversity of microbial life. Depending on its physical and chemical properties, soil can contain 109-1010 microbial cells per gram, including tens of thousands of different bacterial, archaeal, and fungal species, plus viruses and protists.