水圈微生物：推动地球重要元素循环的隐形巨人

正生活在水圈环境中的微生物数量巨大、遗传与代谢方式极为多样,它们驱动着地球上重要元素的循环。水圈微生物研究已经成为生命科学与地球科学的研究热点。国家自然科学基金委员会于2017年启动了"水圈微生物驱动地球元素循环的机制"重大研究计划(简称"水圈微生物"计划)。"水圈微生物"计划拟选择典型水圈生境,通过多学科交叉研究,借助新技术、新方法,揭示水圈微生物在物种、群落和生态水平驱动碳氮硫循环的机制及其环境响应,

Microbiology in hydrosphere: a hidden giant behind the cycling of important elements on Earth

The total number of marine microorganisms is estimated to be 10³⁰. They are the key components driving marine energy and material recycling and maintaining ecological balance. Research advances in marine microbial diversity contribute to our understanding of the operative mechanisms of marine ecosystems. These knowledges can guide our respondence to ecological crisis of global oceans and our exploration of marine microbial resources. As the number of culturable marine microorganisms is currently low, our knowledges to the abundance, physiological characteristics and ecological functions of marine microbial communities are greatly limited. Ribosomal RNA sequencing technologies can rapidly and accurately identify or classify microorganisms based on nucleic acid sequences at low-cost. These technologies have been used in studying community structure and evolutionary and ecological relationships between microorganisms. In recent years, with the benefit of rapid development in sequencing technologies, marine microbial studies based ribosomal RNA sequencing analyses have achieved remarkable progresses in discovering novel marine microbial lineages, revealing ecological mechanisms and evolutionary relationships between marine microorganisms, discovering novel metabolites and applying in marine bioremediation. In this review, we introduce the technical principles of ribosomal RNA sequencing, the application of three generations of sequencing technologies in studying marine microbial diversity, and variable combinations of library construction and sequencing technologies. Finally, we address prospectives in utilizing these sequencing strategies in studies with different purposes.