Caron David A, Worden Alexandra Z, Countway Peter D, Demir Elif, Heidelberg Karla B
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0371, USA.
ISME J. 2009 Jan;3(1):4-12. doi: 10.1038/ismej.2008.101. Epub 2008 Nov 13.
Our understanding of the composition and activities of microbial communities from diverse habitats on our planet has improved enormously during the past decade, spurred on largely by advances in molecular biology. Much of this research has focused on the bacteria, and to a lesser extent on the archaea and viruses, because of the relative ease with which these assemblages can be analyzed and studied genetically. In contrast, single-celled, eukaryotic microbes (the protists) have received much less attention, to the point where one might question if they have somehow been demoted from the position of environmentally important taxa. In this paper, we draw attention to this situation and explore several possible (some admittedly lighthearted) explanations for why these remarkable and diverse microbes have remained largely overlooked in the present 'era of the microbe'.
在过去十年中，受分子生物学进展的极大推动，我们对地球上不同栖息地微生物群落的组成和活动的理解有了巨大提升。由于对这些微生物组合进行遗传分析和研究相对容易，大部分此类研究都集中在细菌上，对古菌和病毒的研究则相对较少。相比之下，单细胞真核微生物（原生生物）受到的关注要少得多，以至于有人可能会质疑它们是否在某种程度上已从具有环境重要性的分类单元的位置上被降级。在本文中，我们提请注意这种情况，并探讨几种可能的（有些诚然是轻松的）解释，说明为什么这些非凡且多样的微生物在当前的“微生物时代”基本上仍被忽视。
