未培养微生物研究:方法、机遇与挑战

自然界中绝大部分的微生物仍是未培养的,称之为未培养微生物或微生物"暗物质"。对其进行研究不仅有助于认识微生物多样性及其代谢特征,加深对环境中微生物参与的生态学过程的理解,还有利于重构生命之树,揭示微生物的进化历程,具有重要的科学意义。同时未培养微生物是发现新基因资源和新活性物质的巨大宝库。随着现代分子生物学研究方法和培养技术的成熟和完善,从环境中直接破译未培养微生物的遗传信息,并实现培养逐渐成为可能。本文主要介绍了基于宏基因组技术和单细胞基因组技术或两者结合运用,研究环境中未培养微生物的主要方法和挑战,总结分析了目前已经解析的未培养微生物的主要类群,并对未来研究的机遇进行了展望。     

未培养微生物分离培养技术研究进展

自然环境中的微生物具有多样性高的特点,而99%的微生物使用传统的方法仍然是"不可培养的",并且能被培养的小部分微生物不能够代表微生态的多样性。因此,确定新的微生物物种和功能仍然是目前的重要任务。本文将综述基于调整培养基、考虑微生物间相互作用、捕获分离培养、高通量分离培养来分离培养微生物群体中的未培养微生物的方法,及功能性研究的进展情况。     

口腔未培养微生物分离培养策略的研究进展

口腔微生物是人体微生物组的重要组成部分,其群落组成丰富且独特。现有研究显示,口腔微生物与龋病、牙周炎等口腔健康问题有直接的联系,因而具有重要的研究价值。随着高通量测序技术的发展,人们对口腔中未培养微生物多样性的认识不断加深,这进一步催生对微生物分离培养技术需求的增加。为此,本文将围绕口腔未培养微生物及其分离培养策略的研究进展,首先介绍口腔中未培养微生物的研究现状;其次分析口腔微生物分离培养中可能的限制因素;最后综述微生物分离培养技术发展及其在口腔未培养微生物研究中的应用。全文旨在为口腔未培养微生物的分离培养提供思路和技术参考。     

未培养微生物研究策略概述

基于未培养微生物数量巨大、种类繁多、基因资源丰富等特点。扼要介绍了未培养微生物的纯培养分离策略和分子生物学研究方法。随着新型培养策略如原位仿生境培养、限制性培养、单细胞微操作等的出现,使未培养微生物的纯培养成为可能。同时由于宏基因组学和高通量DNA测序等现代分子生物学方法技术的逐渐成熟,使来源于未培养微生物的新基因和新活性物质的分离筛选出现了新的机遇与挑战。     

人体微生物“暗物质”：勘探、培养及应用

微生物广泛存在于自然界,其代谢活动对环境和人类健康有重要影响。定植于人体表面和内部的微生物无论从细胞还是基因数量上都远超人体,而90%以上的微生物是未培养的,这严重限制了对人体共生微生物功能的研究。因此,鉴定和分离未知或以前无法培养的微生物的必要性是显而易见的。随着各种技术的进步,可培养的微生物数量不断增加,但仍存在不足。本文论述了利用基因组测序探索微生物“暗物质”的效果,以及分离培养未培养微生物和对其进行开发利用的重要性;综述了当前有效的微生物鉴定和培养技术,如基质辅助激光解吸/电离飞行时间质谱（MALDI-TOF MS）、基因组信息抗体工程等;阐述了微生物与人体健康的相互作用,揭示了人体微生物“暗物质”的潜力,对人体微生物“暗物质”未来的研究和发展进行了讨论。     

未培养微生物的研究与微生物分子生态学的发展*

近年来现代分子技术和基因组学逐渐渗透到有关生命科学的整个领域,也为微生物生态学提供了新的研究方法和机遇。16S rRNA基因序列分析、DNA-DNA杂交、核酸指纹图谱以及宏基因组学等分子技术检查自然环境中的微生物,可以克服传统纯培养技术的不足,是一条探知未培养微生物、寻找新基因及其产物的新途径,开启了我们认识微生物多样性和获得新资源的大门。     

自然界中难分离培养微生物的分离和应用

采用在分离培养基中添加自然来源的抽提液,或加入一些特殊化合物,使其中处于Viable but non-culturable（VBNC）状态的微生物恢复其生长繁殖能力,从而得到分离。实验结果发现甜菜碱、丙酮酸钠、SOD以及过氧化氢酶可使分离到的微生物种类及菌落总数明显增加。还采用固液结合的方法来分离那些在普通平板培养基上不能形成肉眼可见菌落的那些微小菌落的微生物。采用这几种方法从4份土壤样品中共分离得到52株放线菌,103株细菌,17株真菌。对其中的放线菌和真菌进行了生物活性的测定,得到多株具有抗菌活性的微生物,经过多次复筛的平均阳性率为4.325％,略高于用常规方法分离得到的微生物。因此证明有效的分离方法将为今后微生物药物的筛选和药用微生物菌种的保藏提供更丰富的来源。     

微生物单细胞分离方法研究进展

自然界中大多数微生物处于未培养状态,被称为“微生物暗物质”。随着微生物单细胞分离方法的不断更新,利用新技术、新方法应对微生物纯培养的挑战获得了重要进展,这些新的分离及培养策略对推动微生物资源学的发展具有重要意义。尽管宏基因组学和基因组学数据相关成果日益增多,但微生物单细胞的分离与培养对于系统研究微生物的生态功能、遗传进化等仍至关重要。本文主要概述了目前使用的或正在研发的膜扩散培养法、微流控分选、荧光激活细胞分选、单细胞拉曼分选、光镊技术、显微操作技术等单细胞分离技术的原理与应用,及其在微生物单细胞分离和培养方面的优点与不足,同时展望了这些单细胞分离技术未来的发展和应用前景。     

开发未可培养微生物技术的研究进展

细菌的“活的非可培养状态”(VBNC, viable but nonculturable)发现于20世纪80年代, 处于此状态的细菌不但丧失了在培养基上生长繁殖的能力, 而且具有与原菌相似的致病性, 成为可以逃避检测的“隐性”传染源, 对周围的环境及人类安全构成潜在威胁。作为公认的未可培养微生物, 它一直是预防医学、流行病学、微生物生态学以及公共卫生检验检疫方面研究的热点问题之一。现代分子生物学技术和基因组学的深入研究, 为开发环境中的未可培养微生物提供了新的研究方法和机遇。其中遗传指纹图谱技术、宏基因组技术显示出一定的优势, 同时, 随着各种细菌的非可培养状态的实验室模型已日臻成熟, 这为开发和利用未可培养微生物资源提供了新的研究思路。     

自然界中难分离培养微生物的分离和应用*

采用在分离培养基中添加自然来源的抽提液,或加入一些特殊化合物,使其中处于Viable but non-culturable(VBNC)状态的微生物恢复其生长繁殖能力,从而得到分离。实验结果发现甜菜碱、丙酮酸钠、SOD以及过氧化氢酶可使分离到的微生物种类及菌落总数明显增加。还采用固液结合的方法来分离那些在普通平板培养基上不能形成肉眼可见菌落的那些微小菌落的微生物。采用这几种方法从4份土壤样品中共分离得到52株放线菌,103株细菌,17株真菌。对其中的放线菌和真菌进行了生物活性的测定,得到多株具有抗菌活性的微     

未培养环境微生物培养方法的研究进展

自然界中微生物种类繁多、功能多样、分布广泛,对人类健康安全、生态稳定和物种进化等发挥不可替代的作用.尽管微生物培养技术至今已有一百多年,然而由于各种限制因素的制约,目前成功分离培养的微生物仅占0.1％-1.0％,自然界中仍有十分丰富的微生物资源有待挖掘和开发利用.如何理解难培养微生物的制约因素并探索作用机制,同时借此开...     

Isolation of a gene encoding endoglucanase activity from uncultured microorganisms in buffalo rumen

A gene, umcel5N, was isolated from a metagenomic library constructed from the contents of buffalo rumen. Its putative product belongs to the glycosyl hydrolase family 5 and is most closely related to an endoglucanase (ABN54006.1) from Clostridium thermocellum with 44% identity and 60% similarity. Gene umcel5N was heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli. The purified recombinant Umcel5N hydrolyzed carboxymethyl cellulose with a rapid decrease in the viscosity of the solution but with little release of reducing sugars, suggesting an endo mode of action. The enzyme exhibited optimal activity toward p-nitrophenyl β-d-cellobioside at pH 5.5 and 55°C, and had a Km of 1.56 mM and a Vmax of 285.6 U/mg. Two glutamic acids (E144 and E285) of the wild-type Umcel5N were predicted as a proton donor and a nucleophile, respectively. Site-directed mutagenesis confirmed that they were required for the enzyme’s activity.     

Synchrotron-based techniques for plant and soil science: opportunities, challenges and future perspectives

Spectroscopic approaches to plant and soil sciences have provided important information for several decades. However, many of these approaches suffered from a number of limitations and drawbacks especially in terms of spatial resolution and requirements for sample preparation. The advent of dedicated synchrotron facilities, that allow the exploitation of the particular qualities of synchrotron radiation as a research tool, has revolutionised the way we approach the investigation of nutrients and contaminants in environmental samples. Various synchrotron-based techniques are currently available that permit such investigations in situ and at the molecular level. The continuous development of these techniques is delivering substantial gains in terms of sensitivity and spatial resolution which allows analyses of diluted samples at the sub-micron scale. This paper aims at providing an introduction to synchrotron radiation and to the fundamentals of some widely used synchrotron-based techniques, in particular X-ray absorption, fluorescence and tomography. Furthermore, examples are provided regarding the applications of synchrotron-based techniques in the field of plant, soil and rhizosphere research. Finally, current limitations and future perspectives of synchrotron techniques are discussed.     

Cultivating the uncultured: limits, advances and future challenges

Since the invention of the Petri dish, there have been continuous efforts to improve efficiency in microbial cultivation. These efforts were devoted to the attainment for diverse growth conditions, simulation of in situ conditions and achievement of high-throughput rates. As a result, prokaryotes catalysing novel redox reactions as well as representatives of abundant, but not-yet cultured taxa, were isolated. Significant insights into microbial physiology have been made by studying the small number of prokaryotes already cultured. However, despite these numerous breakthroughs, microbial cultivation is still a low-throughput process. The main hindrance to cultivation is likely due to the prevailing lack of knowledge on targeted species. In this review, we focus on the limiting factors surrounding cultivation. We discuss several cultivation obstacles, including the loss of microbial cell–cell communication following species isolation. Future research directions, including the refinement of culture media, strategies based on cell–cell communication and high-throughput innovations, are reviewed. We further propose that a combination of these approaches is urgently required to promote cultivation of uncultured species, thereby dawning a new era in the field.     

Specific single-cell isolation and genomic amplification of uncultured microorganisms

We in this study describe a new method for genomic studies of individual uncultured prokaryotic organisms, which was used for the isolation and partial genome sequencing of a soil archaeon. The diversity of Archaea in a soil sample was mapped by generating a clone library using group-specific primers in combination with a terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism profile. Intact cells were extracted from the environmental sample, and fluorescent in situ hybridization probing with Cy3-labeled probes designed from the clone library was subsequently used to detect the organisms of interest. Single cells with a bright fluorescent signal were isolated using a micromanipulator and the genome of the single isolated cells served as a template for multiple displacement amplification (MDA) using the Phi29 DNA polymerase. The generated MDA product was afterwards used for 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis and shotgun-cloned for additional genomic analysis. Sequence analysis showed >99% 16S rRNA gene homology to soil crenarchaeotal clone SCA1170 and shotgun fragments had the closest match to a crenarchaeotal BAC clone previously retrieved from a soil sample. The system was validated using Methanothermobacter thermoautotrophicus as single-cell test organism, and the validation setup produced 100% sequence homology to the ten tested regions of the genome of this organism.     

Cassava breeding: opportunities and challenges

Although cassava is a major food crop, its scientific breeding began only recently compared with other crops. Significant progress has been achieved, particularly in Asia where cassava is used mainly for industrial processes and no major biotic constraints affect its productivity. Cassava breeding faces several limitations that need to be addressed. The heterozygous nature of the crop and parental lines used to generate new segregating progenies makes it difficult to identify parents with good breeding values. Breeding so far has been mainly based on a mass phenotypic recurrent selection. There is very little knowledge on the inheritance of traits of agronomic relevance. Several approaches have been taken to overcome the constraints in the current methodologies for the genetic improvement of cassava. Evaluations at early stages of selection allow for estimates of general combining ability effect or breeding values of parental lines. Inbreeding by sequential self-pollination facilitates the identification of useful recessive traits, either already present in the Manihot gene pool or induced by mutagenesis.