传统的微生物鉴定和群落分析方法建立在微生物纯种培养分离的基础之上。但是在自然环境中,99%以上的微生物未能通过人工培养,在微生物的分析和研究中存在很大的局限性。与传统的基于培养基的微生物分离技术以及生理学方法和分子生物学方法相比,基于现代生物化学技术——脂肪酸可作为生物标记物而发展起来的磷脂脂肪酸谱图分析方法(PLFA)具有不依赖于培养体系影响,能够直接有效地提供微生物群落中的信息;脂肪酸成分不受质粒数量的影响,试验结果客观、可靠;试验条件要求低、操作难度小、测试功能多;由脂肪酸谱图可以对整个微生物群落进行定量描述等诸多优点,在环境微生物学领域的应用日趋广泛。本文综述了PLFA谱图分析方法及其在环境微生物学领域的应用,包括在微生物检测、鉴定和微生物多样性研究中的应用。

Traditional microbial identification and cluster analysis method is founded on the basis of the separation of microbial pure culture. Because more than 99% of micro-organisms can not be cultured in the natural environment, microbial analysis and research have many limitations. Compared with the traditional medium-based microbial separation technology as well as physiological methods and molecular biological methods, the Phospholipid Fatty Acid analysis which based on fatty acids as a biomarker is widely used in the research of environmental microbiology nowadays. This paper discusses the PLFA fingerprint analysis and its applications for environmental microbial studies, including identification of unknown microbes and assessment of microbial diversity.