Abstract: The present invention relates to systems and methods for the characterization of biological material within a sample or isolate. The characterization may utilize probabilistic methods that compare sequencing information from fragment reads to sequencing information of reference genomic databases and/or trait-specific database catalogs. The characterization may be of the identities and/or relative concentrations or abundance of one or more organisms contained in the sample or isolate. The identification of the organisms may be to the species and/or sub-species and/or strain level with their relative concentrations or abundance. The characterization may additionally or alternatively be of one or more traits (i.e., characteristics) of the biological material contained in the sample or isolate. The characterization of the one or more traits may be with the relative abundance of the traits.