Ford T
Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Environ Health Perspect. 1994 Dec;102 Suppl 12(Suppl 12):45-8. doi: 10.1289/ehp.94102s1245a.
Genetic diversity of a microbial community will inevitably be affected by environmental stress. However, our understanding of the implications of these effects is limited. Genetic exchange between natural microbial communities appears to be a common phenomenon, mediated by a number of microbial processes (conjugation, transformation, and transduction). These mechanisms of change are presumably adaptations to natural environmental perturbation, e.g., the low levels of antibiotics produced by other organisms. However, anthropogenic influences on the environment may be accelerating genetic change within microbiologic ecosystems, beyond these natural adaptation rates. This article highlights some of the perceived risks to ecosystem health and research questions that need to be addressed.
微生物群落的遗传多样性不可避免地会受到环境压力的影响。然而，我们对这些影响的含义的理解是有限的。天然微生物群落之间的基因交换似乎是一种常见现象，由多种微生物过程（接合、转化和转导）介导。这些变化机制大概是对自然环境扰动的适应，例如其他生物产生的低水平抗生素。然而，人类对环境的影响可能正在加速微生物生态系统内的基因变化，超出这些自然适应率。本文强调了一些对生态系统健康的潜在风险以及需要解决的研究问题。
