分子生物学技术在热泉地质微生物学研究中的应用

Molecular biological technologies applied in geo-microbiology of terrestrial geothermal environments

陆地热泉是一类典型的极端生命-环境互作的地质系统,是我们认识生命与环境协同演化的天然实验室。然而,受限于有限的研究手段,热泉中仍存在大量未解密的微生物“暗物质”。这种困境随着技术的革新得到了改善,尤其是近几年来基于组学、探针和同位素标记的多元化检测手段在嗜热微生物多样性的挖掘、新物种和新代谢途径的发现以及嗜热微生物对元素地球化学循环的调控和响应等方面取得了一系列令人瞩目的研究成果,使得热泉极端微生物和地质环境内在联系的研究也成为地质微生物学研究的热点。立足于前人研究成果,本文将简述常用于热泉地质微生物学研究的分子生物学手段的发展,重点总结其在挖掘热泉微生物多样性和热泉微生物的环境功能研究中的应用及进展,最后对未来研究方向提出展望。

Terrestrial hot spring, a typical extreme habitat, is the natural lab for exploring co-evolution of life and geological environment. The progress of molecular biological technology sheds light on decoding the "microbial dark matter" in this special habitat. Some outstanding achievements have been gained, such as expanding thermophilic microbial diversity, exploring new metabolic pathways and addressing their ecological functions, by using the combination of omics-based, probe-based and isotope-based approaches. This comprehensive review summarizes the development of molecular biological methods that were commonly used in the study of geo-microbiology in hot springs and discusses recent application of omics-based, probe-based and isotope-based technologies in revealing the microbial diversity and functional roles in terrestrial hot springs. Finally, we prospected the future research in geo-microbiology of terrestrial geothermal environments.