Boughner Lisa A, Singh Pallavi
Center for Microbial Ecology, Michigan State University, E. Lansing MI 48823.
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Michigan State University, E. Lansing MI 48823.
Postdoc J. 2016 Nov;4(11):3-17. doi: 10.14304/SURYA.JPR.V4N11.2.
Conventional microbiological methods have been readily taken over by newer molecular techniques due to the ease of use, reproducibility, sensitivity and speed of working with nucleic acids. These tools allow high throughput analysis of complex and diverse microbial communities, such as those in soil, freshwater, saltwater, or the microbiota living in collaboration with a host organism (plant, mouse, human, etc). For instance, these methods have been robustly used for characterizing the plant (rhizosphere), animal and human microbiome specifically the complex intestinal microbiota. The human body has been referred to as the Superorganism since microbial genes are more numerous than the number of human genes and are essential to the health of the host. In this review we provide an overview of the Next Generation tools currently available to study microbial ecology, along with their limitations and advantages.
由于使用核酸操作简便、可重复性强、灵敏度高且速度快，传统微生物学方法已很容易被更新的分子技术所取代。这些工具能够对复杂多样的微生物群落进行高通量分析，比如土壤、淡水、咸水中的微生物群落，或者与宿主生物（植物、小鼠、人类等）共生的微生物群。例如，这些方法已被广泛用于具体表征植物（根际）、动物和人类的微生物组，尤其是复杂的肠道微生物群。由于微生物基因的数量比人类基因更多，且对宿主健康至关重要，人体已被称为“超级生物体”。在本综述中，我们概述了目前可用于研究微生物生态学的新一代工具，以及它们的局限性和优势。
