Universidade de Brasília - UnB, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas - Departamento de Biologia Celular, Laboratório de Enzimologia, CEP 700910-900 Brasília, DF, Brazil.
Curr Protein Pept Sci. 2013 Sep;14(6):447-58. doi: 10.2174/13892037113149990062.
It is well established in the scientific literature that only a small fraction of microorganisms can be cultured by conventional microbiology methods. The ever cheaper and faster DNA sequencing methods, together with advances in bioinformatics, have improved our understanding of the structure and functional behavior of microbial communities in many complex environments. However, the metagenomics approach alone cannot elucidate the functionality of all microorganisms, because a vast number of potentially new genes have no homologs in public databases. Metatranscriptomics and metaproteomics are approaches based on different techniques and have recently emerged as promising techniques to describe microbial activities within a given environment at the molecular level. In this review, we will discuss current developments and applications of metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and metaproteomics, and their limitations in the study of microbial communities. The combined analysis of genes, mRNA and protein in complex microbial environments will be key to identify novel biological molecules for biotechnological purposes.
在科学文献中已经充分证实，只有一小部分微生物可以通过传统的微生物学方法进行培养。越来越便宜和快速的 DNA 测序方法，以及生物信息学的进步，提高了我们对许多复杂环境中微生物群落的结构和功能行为的理解。然而，仅通过宏基因组学方法无法阐明所有微生物的功能，因为大量潜在的新基因在公共数据库中没有同源物。基于不同技术的宏转录组学和宏蛋白质组学是最近出现的有前途的技术，可以在分子水平上描述给定环境中的微生物活性。在这篇综述中，我们将讨论宏基因组学、宏转录组学和宏蛋白质组学的当前发展和应用，以及它们在微生物群落研究中的局限性。在复杂的微生物环境中对基因、mRNA 和蛋白质进行联合分析将是识别用于生物技术目的的新型生物分子的关键。
