从第九届国际光合作用大会看藻类分子遗传学发展趋势

THE IXth INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON PHOTOSYNTHESIS REFLECTED THE TREND OF ALGAL MOLECULAR GENETICS

根据1992年8月30日—9月4日在日本名古屋召开的第九届国际光合作用大会上交流的以藻类为材料的研究论文,综述了分子遗传学方面的研究成果。认为这些成果体现了光合作用研究的最新进展,蕴含着一定的应用前景;表明藻类分子遗传学不仅是藻类学研究领域的带头学科,而且已经活跃在光合作用等重大生物学问题研究的前沿;反映了藻类分子遗传学向解决生物学重大问题和推动藻类资源开发方向发展的趋势。

The IXth International Congress on Photosynthesis organized by the International Photosynthesis Committee was held in Nagoya, Japan, on Angust 30-September 4, 1992. It was stressed by the chairperson, N. Murata that since the VIIlth Congress, the rapid development of photosynthesis was particularly based on molecular biology. Of 918 abstracts submitted, 180 deal with algal studies, 59 of which were molecular genetic researches.The unique light-harvesting structure, relatively simple genetic composition and the special status in plant evolution make algae ideal material for photosynthesis research. The significant progress over the last several years in algal photosynthesis research is mainly due to employment of molecular methods, such as gene cloning, sequencing, restriction enzyme analysis, complementary analysis, site-directed muta-genesis, transformation, etc. Algal molecular genetics is not only the leading branch of algal research now, but also one of the most active fields of photosynthesis research.Our poster reported the isolation of allophycocyanin genes from Spirulina pla-tensis and two other blue-green algal species using PCR amplification. These genes are now being sequenced for eluicidating evolutionary lines of photosynthesis molecules and will be used further as purpose gene for algal genetic manipulation. PCR techniques may offer new potential for isolation of genes of conservative photo-synthetic molecules.In the present paper, the author reviews algal molecular work presented at this congress, and attempts to reflect the trend of algal molecular genetic research, which in our view, is to serve both fundamental biology study and the needs of algal resource exploitation.