Microbial population genetics examines the spatial and temporal patterns of genetic variation across diverse geographic scales and ecological niches. With the arrival of molecular biological techniques, the past 40 years have seen tremendous progresses in microbial population genetics. However, in recent years, the analyses of genetic materials directly from natural environments have revolutionized our approaches and understandings of the diversity, function, and inter-relationships among microorganisms in diverse natural ecological niches (Xu, 2010).

The emergence and development of this expanding new field, that of metagenomics, has been primarily driven by technical and analytical methods developed from high throughput platforms for cloning, microfluidics, DNA sequencing, robotics, high-density microarrays, 2D-gel electrophoresis, and mass spectrometry as well as associated bioinformatics softwares. Molecular tools are used for identifying the diversity and function of microorganisms in natural biological communities. Of special notes are the potential impacts of recent developments in single cell isolation, whole-genome amplification, pyrosequencing, and database warehousing on our understanding of microbial population structures in nature. These exciting developments are bringing significant opportunities as well as new challenges to the field of microbial population genetics (Xu, 2010).

References:
Xu, J. (2010) Microbial Population Genetics. Caister Academic Press, Norfolk, UK.
Marco, D. (2010) Metagenomics: Theory, Methods and Applications. Caister Academic Press, Norfolk, UK.
Liu, W.-T. and Jansson, J.K. (2010) Environmental Molecular Microbiology. Caister Academic Press, Norfolk, UK.

Labels: metagenomics, Microbial Population Genetics, population genetics