Kamke Janine, Bayer Kristina, Woyke Tanja, Hentschel Ute
Julius-von-Sachs Institute for Biological Sciences, University of Würzburg, Julius-von-Sachs Platz 3, 97082 Würzburg, Germany.
Biol Bull. 2012 Aug;223(1):30-43. doi: 10.1086/BBLv223n1p30.
Single-cell genomics has advanced the field of microbiology from the analysis of microbial metagenomes where information is "drowning in a sea of sequences," to recognizing each microbial cell as a separate and unique entity. Single-cell genomics employs Phi29 polymerase-mediated whole-genome amplification to yield microgram-range genomic DNA from single microbial cells. This method has now been applied to a handful of symbiotic systems, including bacterial symbionts of marine sponges, insects (grasshoppers, termites), and vertebrates (mouse, human). In each case, novel insights were obtained into the functional genomic repertoire of the bacterial partner, which, in turn, led to an improved understanding of the corresponding host. Single-cell genomics is particularly valuable when dealing with uncultivated microorganisms, as is still the case for many bacterial symbionts. In this review, we explore the power of single-cell genomics for symbiosis research and highlight recent insights into the symbiotic systems that were obtained by this approach.
单细胞基因组学推动了微生物学领域的发展，从分析微生物宏基因组（在宏基因组中信息“淹没在序列的海洋中”），到将每个微生物细胞视为一个独立且独特的实体。单细胞基因组学利用Phi29聚合酶介导的全基因组扩增，从单个微生物细胞中产生微克级的基因组DNA。该方法现已应用于少数共生系统，包括海洋海绵、昆虫（蝗虫、白蚁）和脊椎动物（小鼠、人类）的细菌共生体。在每种情况下，都获得了关于细菌伙伴功能基因组库的新见解，这反过来又增进了对相应宿主的理解。当处理未培养的微生物时，单细胞基因组学特别有价值，许多细菌共生体仍是这种情况。在这篇综述中，我们探讨了单细胞基因组学在共生研究中的作用，并强调了通过这种方法获得的对共生系统的最新见解。
