Yu Jaeyoung, Yuasa Hajime, Hirono Ikuo, Koiwai Keiichiro, Mori Tetsushi
Department of Biotechnology and Life Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 2-24-16 Naka-Cho, Koganei-Shi, Tokyo, 184-8588, Japan.
Laboratory of Genome Science, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, Konan 4-5-7, Minato-Ku, Tokyo, 108-8477, Japan.
Mar Biotechnol (NY). 2025 Mar 14;27(2):64. doi: 10.1007/s10126-025-10441-0.
Bacterial communities associated with living organisms play critical roles in maintaining health and ecological balance. While dominant bacteria have been widely studied, understanding the role of low-abundance bacteria has become increasingly important due to their unique roles, such as regulating bacterial community dynamics and supporting host-specific functions. However, detecting these bacteria remains challenging, as impurities in environmental samples mask signals and compromise the accuracy of analyses. This study explored the use of dielectrophoresis (DEP) as a practical approach to isolate low-abundance bacteria obscured by impurities, comparing its utility to conventional centrifugation methods. Using two shrimp species, Neocaridina denticulata and Penaeus japonicus, DEP effectively isolated bacterial fractions while reducing impurities, enabling the detection of bacteria undetected in centrifuged samples. These newly detected bacteria were potentially linked to diverse ecological and host-specific functions, such as nutrient cycling and immune modulation, highlighting DEP as a highly potential approach to support the study of host-microbial interactions. Overall, we believe that DEP offers a practical solution for detecting overlooked bacteria in conventional methods and exploring their diversity and functional roles, with potential contributions to aquaculture and environmental biotechnology.
与生物体相关的细菌群落对维持健康和生态平衡起着关键作用。虽然优势细菌已得到广泛研究，但由于低丰度细菌具有独特作用，如调节细菌群落动态和支持宿主特异性功能，了解它们的作用变得越来越重要。然而，检测这些细菌仍然具有挑战性，因为环境样本中的杂质会掩盖信号并影响分析的准确性。本研究探索了使用介电电泳（DEP）作为一种实用方法来分离被杂质掩盖的低丰度细菌，并将其效用与传统离心方法进行比较。使用两种虾类，即秀丽白虾和日本对虾，DEP有效地分离了细菌组分，同时减少了杂质，从而能够检测到在离心样本中未检测到的细菌。这些新检测到的细菌可能与多种生态和宿主特异性功能有关，如营养循环和免疫调节，这突出了DEP作为一种极具潜力的方法，可支持宿主-微生物相互作用的研究。总体而言，我们认为DEP为检测传统方法中被忽视的细菌以及探索它们的多样性和功能作用提供了一种实用解决方案，对水产养殖和环境生物技术具有潜在贡献。
