Thomson Nicholas R, Sebaihia Mohammed, Cerdeño-Tárraga Ana M, Holden Matthew T, Parkhill Julian
Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK.
Nat Rev Microbiol. 2004 Jan;2(1):11. doi: 10.1038/nrmicro800.
Two bacteria are featured this month, and both are at the lower end of the genome size scale. The first, Mycoplasma gallisepticum, belongs to a group of bacteria that have been studied both as important human and animal pathogens and in the pursuit of understanding the essential functions of a self-replicating minimal cell. The second, Nanoarchaeum equitans, is an obligate symbiont that only grows in co-culture with another archaeon. N. equitans seems to be the coelacanth of the microbial world--it has been assigned to a new phylum and represents a primitive form of prokaroytic life.
本月介绍了两种细菌，它们的基因组大小均处于较低水平。第一种是鸡毒支原体，它属于一类细菌，这类细菌既作为重要的人类和动物病原体被研究，也用于探索自我复制的最小细胞的基本功能。第二种是嗜热栖热菌，它是一种专性共生菌，仅在与另一种古生菌共培养时才能生长。嗜热栖热菌似乎是微生物世界中的腔棘鱼——它被归为一个新的门，代表了原核生物生命的一种原始形式。
