Topography of microbial assemblages

微生物组合的地形

• 批准号: NE/F014392/1
• 负责人: Karen Tait
• 金额: $ 25.14万
• 依托单位: Plymouth Marine Laboratory
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2008 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FF014392%2F1
• 关键词: Topography; microbial; assemblages

Microorganisms are everywhere and they are fundamentally important. They were the earliest form of life on the planet and have been around for 3.7 billion years; indeed for the first 2 billion years, bacteria were the only living things on the planet. Their activity changed the planet, changing the environment to allow other life forms to develop. Today, bacteria continue to be very important for the health of the global ecosystem since they are involved in and control all biogeochemical cycles. For such an important group, it is perhaps surprising how little we know about bacteria and archaea (another group of important prokaryotic microbes). This is partly because they are difficult to study, particularly in the natural environment. Classical approaches that involve growing bacteria in the laboratory do not work because more than 99% of bacteria cannot grow in standard microbiological media. But in recent years, considerable progress has been made in identifying the diversity of microbes in the natural environment. Genetic and metagenomic approaches have given us great insight into which organisms are present and, increasingly, the function of these organisms. However, these techniques operate at the level of the community and we still know almost nothing about the individuals that make up that community / and particularly how they interact. This proposal tackles two problems that have limited understanding of bacteria from the natural environment / how to manipulate such small organisms in a defined way and how to identify different 'species'. Using state-of-the-art technology, we will encapsulate bacteria from natural assemblages (both marine and soil environments) so that they can be manipulated. We will use a novel microscope to distinguish between different bacterial species. Using a combination of these two techniques, we will investigate how different bacterial species interact, either through supplying nutrients to each other or controlling the activity of the whole population through cell-to-cell signalling.

微生物无处不在，它们从根本上说是重要的。它们是地球上最早的生命形式，已经存在了37亿年；事实上，在最初的20亿年里，细菌是地球上唯一的生物。它们的活动改变了地球，改变了环境，使其他生命形式得以发展。今天，细菌仍然对全球生态系统的健康非常重要，因为它们参与并控制着所有的生物地球化学循环。对于这样一个重要的群体，我们对细菌和古菌(另一组重要的原核微生物)知之甚少，或许令人惊讶。这在一定程度上是因为它们很难研究，特别是在自然环境中。需要在实验室中培养细菌的经典方法不起作用，因为99%以上的细菌不能在标准微生物介质中生长。但近年来，在鉴定自然环境中微生物多样性方面取得了相当大的进展。遗传学和后基因组学方法使我们对存在哪些生物体有了很大的了解，并越来越多地了解了这些生物体的功能。然而，这些技术在社区层面上运行，我们仍然对组成社区的个人几乎一无所知，特别是他们如何相互作用。这项建议解决了两个问题，即对自然环境中的细菌的了解有限/如何以明确的方式操纵这种小生物体，以及如何识别不同的“物种”。使用最先进的技术，我们将封装来自自然组合(海洋和土壤环境)的细菌，这样它们就可以被操纵。我们将使用一种新型显微镜来区分不同的细菌物种。使用这两种技术的组合，我们将研究不同的细菌物种是如何相互作用的，要么是通过相互提供营养，要么是通过细胞对细胞的信号控制整个种群的活动。

项目成果

Stable Isotope Probing and Related Techniques

稳定同位素探测及相关技术

• 发表时间: 2011
• 作者: Read DS;Whiteley AJ
• 通讯作者: Whiteley AJ

Investigating a possible role for the bacterial signal molecules N-acylhomoserine lactones in Balanus improvisus cyprid settlement.

研究细菌信号分子 N-酰基高丝氨酸内酯在龟头龟定居中的可能作用。

• DOI: 10.1111/mec.12273
• 发表时间: 2013
• 期刊: Molecular ecology
• 影响因子: 4.9
• 作者: Tait K

Environmental microbiology : current technology and water applications

环境微生物学：当前技术和水应用

• 发表时间: 2010
• 作者: K. Sen;N. Ashbolt
• 通讯作者: N. Ashbolt