追寻全程硝化菌之路:基因序列驱动的新功能微生物的发现

Seeking of Complete nitrifiers:Finding of Novel Functional Microorganisms Driven by Gene Sequence

2015年末Nature杂志同期发表2篇文章,首次报道了全程硝化菌(Complete ammonia oxidizer,Comammox)。我们对全程硝化菌的研究始于2012年,基于高简并引物的两步PCR方法发现了全程硝化菌的广泛分布,但当时根据文献将其误认为是奇异甲烷氧化菌,在2014年富集培养过程中才发现是氨氧化菌。在后续的研究中,通过设计全程硝化菌特异性引物,确认了其在各种生态环境中的数量以及多样性。本文对本课题组发现和富集培养全程硝化菌过程中的经验教训和研究思路进行总结,将有助于基因序列驱动的新微生物的发现。

At the end of 2015,the Naturejournal published two papers to report Complete ammonia oxidizer（Comammox）for the first time.Our lab started Comammox related work from 2012,and determined the diverse distribution of Comammox based on two-step PCR with highly degenerate primer.However,we thought these microbes as unusual methanotroph according to published papers,until we confirmed the ammonia oxidizing activity of these microbes.We designed Comammox specific primers and determined the contents and diversities of Comammox in various environments.The successes,failures and research routes during the progress of identification and enrichment of Comammox,may be helpful for the finding of novel microorganisms driven by gene sequence.