微生物基因组会议介绍

2001年1月28～31日在美国加州Morterey市由美国微生物学会及基因组研究所(TIGR)联合召开了微生物基因组会议.到会代表约350人,来自美、德、英、瑞典、以色列、俄罗斯、斯洛伐克、法国、加拿大、巴西、荷兰、奥地利、比利时、澳大利亚、日本、韩国、丹麦、墨西哥、新西兰、泰国及我国大陆和台湾共22个国家和地区,可见对这一领域的重视程度.会议不分组,口头报告全部以大会方式进行.主要分为以下4个主题:基因组项目;比较基因组与进化;功能基因组与相关技术;生物信息等.同时有85份墙报展示.     

微生物基因组简化的研究进展

微生物基因组简化是合成生物学研究热点之一。基因组的适度精简可使细胞代谢途径得以优化,改善细胞对底物、能量的利用效率,大大提高细胞生理性能的预测性和可控性。基因组简化细胞将为生物技术的应用提供理想的底盘细胞。同顾了构建基因组简化细胞的研究策略、研究方法及一些模式生物相关研究进展,总结了基因组简化研究所面临的问题及解决办法,对基因组减小化研究发展趋势前景进行了展望。     

微生物全基因组鸟枪法测序

全基因组测序主要有二种策略,一种是分级鸟枪法测序,另一种是全基因组鸟枪法测序。微生物是一种十分重要的遗传资源,运用全基因组鸟枪法可以方便、快捷地完成其基因组的测序任务。本文对微生物全基因组鸟枪法测序中文库构建、插入片段的长短比例、反应投入量、拼接以及补洞等问题作了较细致的描述,有些步骤作了举例说明。 Abstract:Two strategies introduced for whole genome sequencing,one is clone by clone method,the other is whole genome shotgun sequencing,for microbes which are very important to us,whole genome shotgun sequencing method is very convenient.In this article we discussed the library construction、long-to-short-ratio of insert,、total number of reads should be sequenced、assembly and gap filling technologies of the whole microbial genome shotgun sequencing method while some examples presented.     

微生物全基因组测序研究进展

本文综述了近年来大规模微生物基因组核酸序列测定的最新研究进展,介绍微生物全基因组测序的基本方法、序列的收集组装,序列缺口的填补,以及序列资料的计算机分析整理。大规模基因组测序完成后,未来面临的更大挑战是在ＤＮＡ序列基础上认识微生物的完整生物学功能。为此本文也介绍了有关基因功能分析的新技术,并对微生物基因组功能分析的未来发展作了展望。     

环境微生物基因组技术研究进展

环境微生物基因组学是基于功能和序列的基础上对得到的环境样品基因组进行分析的科学,是目前国际生物技术研究开发的最新热点之一。对环境微生物基因组技术的概念、研究策略和筛选方式进行了介绍,并对该技术存在的问题和未来发展方向做了展望。     

环境微生物基因组技术研究

绝大多数微生物难以有效地进行人工培养,而且实验室工程菌几乎没有野生型功能,因此限制了基于自然微生物多样性的生物技术的应用.为了把对生物群落的结构、功能和细菌在自然环境中进化的认识应用到微生物工艺学中、微生物学家们正致力于把基因组学和相关的高通量技术应用到微生物培养体系和环境样品中,而这必将增添对生态系统及其生物学功能的新见解并带动生物技术的发展.从微生物鉴别及其基因功能的分析、确证和评价等方面综述了基因组技术在环境样品中的应用,提出了现今面临的问题,同时也对环境基因组技术做了展望.     

微生物基因组注释系统MGAP

利用生物信息学方法和工具开发了微生物基因组注释系统（Microbial genome annotation package, MGAP）,并用于蓝细菌PCC7002的基因组注释。该系统由基因组注释系统和基于Web的用户接口程序两部分组成。基因组注释系统整合多个基因识别、功能预测和序列分析软件;以及蛋白质序列数据库、蛋白质资源信息系统和直系同源蛋白质家族数据库等。用户接口程序包括基因组环状图展示、基因和开放读码框在染色体上的分布图,以及注释信息检索工具。该系统基于PC微机和Linux操作系统,用MySQL作数据库管理系统、用Apache作Web服务器程序,用Perl脚本语言编写应用程序接口,上述软件均可免费获得。     

浅谈微生物基因组的进化研究

近十几年来,随着大规模DNA测序技术的飞速发展,今天拥有了包括我们人类自己在内的近千种不同细胞生物的全基因组参考序列,而如何比较分析这么多的基因组数据是生物学家面临的一大挑战.结合我们研究组的一些工作,重点介绍进化生物学家是如何利用这些丰富的基因组数据--特别是原核生物的基因组序列--通过挑选不同的分子标记,计算分析并重建这些系统发育关系,以期帮助人们更好地理解地球生命的起源与进化.生命系统对地球环境变化的作用,以及微生物与人类健康的关系等一系列科学问题.     

微生物基因组精简优化的研究进展

微生物基因组精简优化是构建合成生物学底盘细胞的重要策略.文中从基因组精简的整体设计出发,归纳了微生物的必需基因及其确定方法,重点介绍了各种微生物基因组精简策略,分析了多种基因组精简菌株的特点,充分展示了基因组精简优化在构建合成生物学底盘细胞中的重要作用.     

古代病原微生物基因组的研究进展

古代病原微生物基因组研究对病理学、微生物学、考古学等领域均具有重要的价值。在过去的十年里,高通量测序和靶向富集技术的发展和应用使古代微生物基因组的获取成为可能,通过对古代人群样本中获取的宏基因组进行筛查,使得引发古代疫情的相关病原体的基因组得以重建,为研究人类传染病的起源、传播和演化提供了一个独特的窗口。在当今全球化的背景下,新发及再发传染性疾病的出现频率促使我们回顾过去,以便更好地了解现代病原菌出现和古代病原菌重新出现的过程和生态环境。在这篇文章中,我们总结了近十年古代病原微生物基因组水平的研究进展,并提出了这项研究所面临的挑战以及未来的研究前景和方向。     

Microbial genomes

Microbial genome sequencing is driven by the need to understand and control pathogens and to exploit extremophiles and their enzymes in bioremediation and industry. It is hard for the traditional bacteriologist to grasp the scale and pace of the venture. Around two dozen microbial genomes have now been completed and, within a decade, genomes from every significant species of bacterial pathogen of humans, animals and plants will have been sequenced. Indeed, we will often have more than one sequence from a species or genus--for example, we already have sequences from two strains of Helicobacter pylori, from two strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and from three species of Pyrococcus. However, genome sequencing risks becoming expensive molecular stamp-collecting without the tools to mine the data and fuel hypothesis-driven laboratory-based research. Bioinformatics, twinned with the new experimental approaches forming functional genomics', provides some of the needed tools. Nonetheless, there will be an increasing need for us to explore the detailed implications of genomic findings. Microbial genome sequencing thus represents not a threat, but an exciting opportunity for molecular microbiologists.     

Microbial genomes: dealing with diversity

We have now complete genome sequences of several pairs of closely related prokaryotes (conspecific strains or congeneric species). Surprisingly, even strains of the same species can differ by as much as 20% in gene content. Conceptual and methodological approaches for dealing with such diversity are now being developed, and should transform microbial genomics.     

Microbial tropicalization driven by a strengthening western ocean boundary current

Western boundary currents (WBCs) redistribute heat and oligotrophic seawater from the tropics to temperate latitudes, with several displaying substantial climate change‐driven intensification over the last century. Strengthening WBCs have been implicated in the poleward range expansion of marine macroflora and fauna, however, the impacts on the structure and function of temperate microbial communities are largely unknown. Here we show that the major subtropical WBC of the South Pacific Ocean, the East Australian Current (EAC), transports microbial assemblages that maintain tropical and oligotrophic (k‐strategist) signatures, to seasonally displace more copiotrophic (r‐strategist) temperate microbial populations within temperate latitudes of the Tasman Sea. We identified specific characteristics of EAC microbial assemblages compared with non‐EAC assemblages, including strain transitions within the SAR11 clade, enrichment of Prochlorococcus, predicted smaller genome sizes and shifts in the importance of several functional genes, including those associated with cyanobacterial photosynthesis, secondary metabolism and fatty acid and lipid transport. At a temperate time‐series site in the Tasman Sea, we observed significant reductions in standing stocks of total carbon and chlorophyll a, and a shift towards smaller phytoplankton and carnivorous copepods, associated with the seasonal impact of the EAC microbial assemblage. In light of the substantial shifts in microbial assemblage structure and function associated with the EAC, we conclude that climate‐driven expansions of WBCs will expand the range of tropical oligotrophic microbes, and potentially profoundly impact the trophic status of temperate waters.     

Mitochondrial genomes and phylogeny of the ocean sunfishes (Tetraodontiformes: Molidae)

We determined the complete nucleotide sequences of the mitochondrial genomes for the three currently recognized species of ocean sunfish: Mola mola, Masturus lanceolatus, and Ranzania laevis (Tetraodontiformes: Molidae). Each genome contained the 37 genes as found in teleosts, with the typical gene order in teleosts. Bayesian, maximum-likelihood, and maximum-parsimony analyses were conducted with the data set comprising concatenated nucleotide sequences from 36 genes (excluding the ND6 gene) of three molids and four outgroups (three tetraodontiforms plus a caproid). The resultant trees supported monophyly of the Molidae and its intrarelationships ((Mola, Masturus), Ranzania), which were congruent with previous morphology-based hypotheses.     

Marine derived biosurfactants: a vast potential future resource

Surfactants and emulsifiers are surface-active compounds (SACs) which play an important role in various industrial processes and products due to their interfacial properties. Many of the chemical surfactants in use today are produced from non-renewable petrochemical feedstocks, while biosurfactants (BS) produced by microorganisms from renewable feedstocks are considered viable alternatives to petroleum based surfactants, due to their biodegradability and eco-friendly nature. However, some well-characterised BS producers are pathogenic and therefore, not appropriate for scaled-up production. Marine-derived BS have been found to be produced by non-pathogenic organisms making them attractive possibilities for exploitation in commercial products. Additionally, BS produced from marine bacteria may show excellent activity at extreme conditions (temperature, pH and salinity). Despite being non-pathogenic, marine-derived BS have not been exploited commercially due to their low yields, insufficient structural elucidation and uncharacterised genes. Therefore, optimization of BS production conditions in marine bacteria, characterization of the compounds produced as well as the genes involved in the biosynthesis are necessary to improve cost-efficiency and realise the industrial demands of SACs.     

Microbial genomes and vaccine design: refinements to the classical reverse vaccinology approach

The advent of whole-genome sequencing of bacteria and advances in bioinformatics have revolutionized the study of bacterial pathogenesis, enabling the targeting of possible vaccine candidates starting from genomic information. Nowadays, the availability of hundreds of bacterial genomes enables identification of the genetic differences across several genomes from the same species. The unexpected degree of intra-species diversity suggests that a single genome sequence is not entirely representative and does not offer a complete picture of the genetic variability of a species. The practical consequence is that, in many cases, a universal vaccine is possible only by including a combination of antigens and this combination must take into account the pathogen population structure.     

Microbial fuel cell energy from an ocean cold seep

Benthic microbial fuel cells are devices that generate modest levels of electrical power in seafloor environments by a mechanism analogous to the coupled biogeochemical reactions that transfer electrons from organic carbon through redox intermediates to oxygen. Two benthic microbial fuel cells were deployed at a deep-ocean cold seep within Monterey Canyon, California, and were monitored for 125 days. Their anodes consisted of single graphite rods that were placed within microbial mat patches of the seep, while the cathodes consisted of carbon-fibre/titanium wire brushes attached to graphite plates suspended ∼0.5 m above the sediment. Power records demonstrated a maximal sustained power density of 34 mW·m⁻² of anode surface area, equating to 1100 mW m⁻² of seafloor. Molecular phylogenetic analyses of microbial biofilms that formed on the electrode surfaces revealed changes in microbial community composition along the anode as a function of sediment depth and surrounding geochemistry. Near the sediment surface (20–29 cm depth), the anodic biofilm was dominated by micro-organisms closely related to Desulfuromonas acetoxidans. At horizons 46–55 and 70–76 cm below the sediment–water interface, clone libraries showed more diverse populations, with increasing representation of δ-proteobacteria such as Desulfocapsa and Syntrophus, as well as ɛ-proteobacteria. Genes from phylotypes related to Pseudomonas dominated the cathode clone library. These results confound ascribing a single electron transport role performed by only a few members of the microbial community to explain energy harvesting from marine sediments. In addition, the microbial fuel cells exhibited slowly decreasing current attributable to a combination of anode passivation and sulfide mass transport limitation. Electron micrographs of fuel cell anodes and laboratory experiments confirmed that sulfide oxidation products can build up on anode surfaces and impede electron transfer. Thus, while cold seeps have the potential to provide more power than neighbouring ocean sediments, the limits of mass transport as well as the proclivity for passivation must be considered when developing new benthic microbial fuel cell designs to meet specific power requirements.