发光酶标记基因在微生物分子生态学研究中的应用

The application of lux (c) marker genes in microbial molecular ecology.

1 前言随着分子生物学向微生物生态学的渗透,微生物生态学的研究内容和水平正不断深化和提高,一门新的分支学科——微生物分子生态学也已日趋成熟[1]。对释放至环境中的遗传改良微生物(genetically modified microorganisms,简称GMMs)进行风险评估(risk assessment)、测量引入细菌在植物根部、叶面的定殖动态、容量或土壤中的群体数量则是微生物分子生态学的主要研究内容之一。但是,由于大多数细菌并不具有足以与同类土著细菌区分的特征而无法做到特异性的检测与回收。因此,通过遗传重组将外源基因(标记基因,marker gene)导入供试菌株,从而在检测或回收释放至土壤中的该种菌株时可以将其与同类土著细菌分开的方法(亦即标记基因技术)

Microbial molecular ecology, as a new scientific subject, has been developing with the introduction of molecular biology to microbial ecology. In this paper, the mechanism of bioluminescence, the typies of lux(c) genes cloned vectors, the techniques of bioluminescence measurement, and luminescent colony detection for the application of lux(c)marker genes were reviewed. The luminescence-based determining technique could be used in a large scale in microbial molecular ecology and it will play an important role for tracking, determining , and recovering of released bacteria ,especially genetically modified bacteria ,in natural environments. It was demonstrated that this technique was a rapid and economical method with high stability and sensitivity, and strong selectivity.