Röling Wilfred F M
Department of Molecular Cell Physiology, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
FEMS Microbiol Ecol. 2007 Nov;62(2):202-10. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6941.2007.00350.x. Epub 2007 Jul 5.
In order to enhance understanding of the interrelationships among community members and between them and their environment, the concept of regulation analysis is extended from biochemistry into microbial ecology. Ecological regulation analysis quantifies how biogeochemical fluxes are regulated by the microorganisms performing the process; the degree to which changes in fluxes are due to changes in population size and to changes in activity cell(-1) (cellular activity). Regulation analysis requires data on biogeochemical fluxes and the numbers of cells through which these fluxes run. Its application to five biogeochemical processes (aerobic methane oxidation, aerobic nitrite oxidation, methanogenesis, sulfate reduction and reductive dehalogenation) revealed that in general, but not always, flux was primarily regulated by cellular activity, i.e. by changes in the size and properties of the enzyme pool and in the concentrations of substrates and metabolites. Thus, it is often not sufficient to count the numbers of cells performing a particular step in a biogeochemical process in order to estimate its flux. Ecological regulation analysis can be extended to address which aspects of cellular activity require quantification in order to describe biogeochemical fluxes better. Its application is discussed in the context of the complexity of microbial communities (e.g. functional redundancy) and their functioning.
为了增进对群落成员之间以及它们与环境之间相互关系的理解，调控分析的概念从生物化学扩展到了微生物生态学。生态调控分析量化了生物地球化学通量是如何由执行该过程的微生物进行调控的；通量变化在多大程度上归因于种群大小的变化以及单位细胞活性（细胞活性）的变化。调控分析需要生物地球化学通量以及这些通量所流经的细胞数量的数据。将其应用于五个生物地球化学过程（好氧甲烷氧化、好氧亚硝酸盐氧化、产甲烷作用、硫酸盐还原和还原性脱卤作用）表明，一般而言，但并非总是如此，通量主要受细胞活性调控，即受酶库大小和性质以及底物和代谢物浓度变化的调控。因此，为了估算生物地球化学过程中特定步骤的通量，仅仅计算执行该步骤的细胞数量往往是不够的。生态调控分析可以扩展到确定为了更好地描述生物地球化学通量，细胞活性的哪些方面需要进行量化。在微生物群落的复杂性（如功能冗余）及其功能的背景下讨论了其应用。
