The Immunofluorescence Approach in Microbial Ecology
The Immunofluorescence Approach in Microbial Ecology
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微生物生态学中的免疫荧光方法
DOI：
10.1007/978-1-4615-8291-5_6
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发表时间：
1980
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
E. L. Schmidt
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
B. Bohlool;E. L. Schmidt
适当地结合到抗体蛋白上的荧光标记提供了一种方法的基础，当这些抗体参与抗原性抗体反应时，该方法可以可视化这些抗体。这种方法被称为荧光抗体(FA)或免疫荧光(IF)技术，多年来作为一种高度敏感和特异的细胞化学染色方法在医学微生物学和病理学中得到了广泛和成功的应用。目前这项技术的大多数应用是定位组织中的细胞和病毒抗原，以及快速检测和鉴定感染性病原体。FA技术使检测和鉴定动物组织中的微生物病原体成为可能，这些特征为其在微生物生态学中的自生学应用提供了潜力。作为一种在其自然环境中直接研究单个微生物的方法，由于微生物的小尺寸和非描述的形态以及自然环境的物理复杂性带来的技术困难，微生物生态学实际上无法获得这种方法。如果有一种方法可以识别视野中存在的所有微生物中的一种特定微生物，那么对自然环境的直接显微镜检查可能成为自生学研究的有力工具。这种能力是FA技术所固有的。因为极少量的荧光标记抗体可以在暗背景下通过荧光检测被检测到。
Fluorescent markers appropriately conjugated to antibody proteins provide the basis for a method to visualize those antibodies as they participate in antigenantibody reactions. The method is referred to as the fluorescent antibody (FA) or immunofluorescence (IF) technique; it has been in widespread and successful use in medical microbiology and in pathology as a highly sensitive and specific cytochemical staining procedure for many years. Most current applications of the technique are for the localization of cellular and viral antigens in tissues and for the rapid detection and identification of infectious agents. The same features of the FA technique that make possible the detection and identification of microbial pathogens in animal tissues provide its potential for autecological application in microbial ecology. Autecology, as an approach whereby the individual microorganism is studied directly in its natural environment, has been virtually unavailable to microbial ecology because of technical difficulties imposed by the small size and nondescript morphology of microorganisms and by the physical complexities of the natural environment. Direct microscopic examination of the natural environment could become a powerful tool for autecological study if a method were available to recognize one specific microorganism among all others present in the field of view. Such a capability is inherent in the FA technique. Because extremely small amounts of fluorochrome-marked antibody may be detected against a dark background by fluo-