噬藻体辅助代谢基因(AMGs)研究进展

Advances in researches on cyanophage auxiliary metabolic genes

噬藻体是一类广泛存在于海洋及淡水环境中以蓝藻为感染宿主的病毒,对蓝藻种群结构与多样性以及水生态环境具有重要的影响。噬藻体携带一系列与宿主新陈代谢相关的同源基因被称为辅助代谢基因。它们编码的蛋白在噬藻体感染蓝藻过程中,可参与宿主的光合作用、戊糖磷酸循环、营养物质摄取以及核苷酸生物合成等代谢活动。近年来,一些辅助代谢基因被作为噬藻体分子检测的靶标基因,并用于噬藻体遗传多样性及其与蓝藻间相互关系的研究。本文综述了国内外有关噬藻体辅助代谢基因的来源、生物学功能及其多样性等方面的研究进展。

Cyanophages are a group of viruses infecting the cyanobacteria, and are widespread in both marine and freshwater environments. As important components of microbial communities, cyanophages play significant roles in cyanobacterial population structure and diversity and aquatic ecological environments. Cyanophages contain some host-like metabolic genes, as to auxiliary metabolic genes, which encode proteins involved in the light reactions of photosynthesis, pentose phosphate pathway, nutrient acquisition and DNA biosynthesis during the process of infecting cyanobacteria. Recently, some auxiliary metabolic genes have been used as target genes for investigating cyanophage diversity, and the interactions between cyanophages and cyanobacteria. In this review, we summarized advances in studying the origin, biological function and genetic diversity of cyanophage auxiliary metabolic genes at home and abroad.