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

Genetic diversity, population structure, and evolutionary history of malaria parasites are among the key factors that will influence our ability to identify genes contributing to drug resistance, parasite development, and disease pathogenesis. These factors also have an impact on vaccine and drug development, parasite source tracking, as well as the formulation of other disease prevention and control measures. For example, a highly polymorphic parasite population will contain ample genetic diversity capable of generating drug resistance genotypes at an accelerated rate; while the presence of homogeneous parasite populations should aid in the development of an effective malaria vaccine. Malaria research in the post-genomic era offers many new tools for use in population genetics analyses (Xu, 2010).

References:
Xu, J. (2010) Microbial Population Genetics. Caister Academic Press, Norfolk, UK.

Labels: Malaria, Microbial Population Genetics, population genetics

Population genetics examine variation in genes among a group of strains of a particular species. Its major theme is to look at how different environmental factors and selective pressures can affect the distribution of genes and alleles.

Yersinia pestis was employed (Xu, 2010) as an example to illustrate how the techniques are used for population genetic studies and how the achievements of these kinds of studies can be used for rapid identification and tracing the origin of pathogenic bacteria.

New emerging techniques, including high throughput sequencing technologies, will give us unprecedented opportunities to understand microevolution and pathogenesis of bacterial pathogens (Xu, 2010).

References:
Xu, J. (2010) Microbial Population Genetics. Caister Academic Press, Norfolk, UK.

Labels: Microbial Population Genetics, population genetics