海洋微生物宏基因组工程进展与展望

Marine microbial metagenomics:progress and prospect

据初步统计,生活于海洋环境包括大洋深处的微生物有100万种以上,构成了一个动态的遗传基因库,其中绝大多数微生物或者从来没有经过实验室培养,或者至今无法培养,因而其分类地位及其生态学功能尚未为人类所认识。随着16S rRNA序列分析与系统分类学的广泛应用,海洋微生物多样性研究领域已经发生了很可观的改变,这些变化极大的丰富了人们对的微生物多样性及其生态功能的认识和理解。这里结合笔者近十年来的工作实践,讨论近年来在海洋微生物资源开发利用方面的研究进展,提出一个带有自动化特征的宏基因组功能表达平台,探讨海洋微生物资源利用的新途径。可以预见在不久的将来,海洋环境宏基因组工程研究将在一定程度上使得传统未培养海洋微生物基因资源及其功能产物能够为人类所开发和利用。

Preliminary statistics showed that there are more than one million species of microbes in marine environments that formed a dynamic genetic reservoir, among which the majority are not revealed and categorized due to barrier in cultivation techniques. However, the situation has changed in recent years because of the rapid development of phylogenetic studies based on small ribosomal RNA and rDNA sequencing independent to standard laboratory cultivation. These changes have significantly altered our understanding about microbial diversity and microbial ecology. In this review, we highlight some of recent progress and innovation in research on microbial diversity, and propose a metagenomic scheme as an alternative to overcome some of the barriers that still remain for exploitation of marine microbial diversity for its enormous potential in pharmaceutical applications. We believe that rapid progress in marine metagenomics allows direct access to the genomes of numerous non-cultivable microorganisms for their associated chemical prosperity.