元转录组学在微生物群落研究中的应用

Application of metatranscriptomics in the research of microbial population

环境微生物多样性复杂庞大,蕴藏着丰富的基因资源,随着分子生物学研究工具的出现,对未培养微生物的研究愈加深入。元转录组学(Metatranscriptomics)是在元基因组学之后新兴的一门学科,目前已渗透到了当前许多的技术和领域,对于了解微生物代谢等生物过程中所涉及的基因和途径是一种很重要的工具。综述了元转录组学的基本概念,讨论了其与目前被用于基础和应用研究的元基因组学相比的优势,对元转录组学的研究方法及其在微生物研究中的应用进行了重点描述。

It is well accepted that microbial population from the environment is complex and contains high abundance of gene resources.Researches on uncultured microbes can be done more profoundly with the advent of molecular tools.Metatranscriptomics,a recently developed technology,is one of the important tools that can be used for understanding biologically active functional genes and their pathways.In this mini-review,we described the concept of metatranscriptomics and its advantages over metagenomic approaches,with emphasis on the research methods for metatranscriptomics and its applications.