Nagy Krisztina, Ábrahám Ágnes, Keymer Juan E, Galajda Péter
Biological Research Centre, Institute of Biophysics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Szeged, Hungary.
Doctoral School of Multidisciplinary Medical Science, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary.
Front Microbiol. 2018 Mar 20;9:496. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.00496. eCollection 2018.
Microfluidics is an emerging technology that is used more and more in biology experiments. Its capabilities of creating precisely controlled conditions in cellular dimensions make it ideal to explore cell-cell and cell-environment interactions. Thus, a wide spectrum of problems in microbial ecology can be studied using engineered microbial habitats. Moreover, artificial microfluidic ecosystems can serve as model systems to test ecology theories and principles that apply on a higher level in the hierarchy of biological organization. In this mini review we aim to demonstrate the versatility of microfluidics and the diversity of its applications that help the advance of microbiology, and in more general, experimental ecology.
微流控技术是一项正在兴起的技术，在生物学实验中的应用越来越广泛。它能够在细胞尺度上创造精确可控的条件，这使其成为探索细胞间和细胞与环境相互作用的理想工具。因此，利用工程化的微生物栖息地可以研究微生物生态学中的一系列广泛问题。此外，人工微流控生态系统可以作为模型系统，用于检验适用于生物组织层次结构中更高层次的生态学理论和原理。在本综述中，我们旨在展示微流控技术的多功能性及其应用的多样性，这些应用有助于推动微生物学乃至更广泛的实验生态学的发展。
