Monday, September 28, 2009

MICROBIAL POPULATION GENETICS

Bacterial population genetics is the study of natural bacterial genetic diversity arising from evolutionary processes. The roles of molecular mistakes, restriction–modification, plasmids and gene transfer in bacteria are also important components of population genetics. These aspects are of considerable scientific importance from a fundamental perspective, because of the short generation times of bacteria, their microscopic cell size, the large population sizes bacteria can achieve and their different mechanisms of gene transfer.

Microbial population genetics is a rapidly advancing field of investigation with relevance to many areas of science. The subject encompasses theoretical issues such as the origins and evolution of species, sex and recombination. Population genetics lays the foundations for tracking the origin and evolution of antibiotic resistance and deadly infectious pathogens and is also an essential tool in the utilization of beneficial microbes.
The knowledge of genetic diversity in bacterial population has increased considerably over the last 15 years, due to the application of molecular techniques to microbial ecological studies. Among the molecular methods, the PCR-based techniques provide a powerful and high throughput approach for the study of genetic diversity in bacterial populations. PCR fingerprinting methods for the analysis of biodiversity are numerous and usually very effective.


                                                                                                   




                                                                                                                your suggestions and comments are encouraged
                                                                                                  


No comments:

Post a Comment