What Is Molecular Ecology?

Molecular ecology is a field of ecology. It is an interdisciplinary science that studies the ecology using molecular biology methods. Such as studying the presence and distribution of certain genes in the environment. Molecular ecology is a cutting-edge discipline that has emerged in recent years. It is the product of the cross-fusion of two leading disciplines of the 20th century, molecular biology and ecology. It will have a significant impact on the study of ecology, molecular biology and ecological adaptation and evolution influences.

The interaction between living things and the environment is a natural phenomenon that has prevailed since life on earth appeared. However, since the birth of ecology in 1866, human understanding of its regularity has gone through a long historical process from shallow to deep, from one-sided to comprehensive. In terms of methods, from the "guess speculation method" that gradually gets rid of direct observation, to the "experiential induction method" for qualitative description in the field, to the "systematic synthesis method" that combines quantitative field testing and laboratory experiments. Although the above methods have effectively promoted the rapid development of ecology, their research horizons are still limited to the macro level, and thus show living organisms with the same appearance or form. Due to different environmental conditions, their physiological functions are also different;

Molecular ecology task

Biological organisms studied in ecology are a complex life system. Individual species can reflect the basic characteristics of life such as metabolism, self-reproduction, self-regulation, and evolution of living organisms at a macro level, but cannot characterize the differences in the environment. The qualitative differences of the same individuals in different environments in terms of metabolism, self-reproduction, self-regulation, mutation and evolution. In fact, any individual species does not exist in the natural environment as a single individual, but exists in the natural environment as a group species. Ecologically, the individual clusters of the same organism in a specific space are called populations. It has both quantitative and spatial characteristics, as well as genetic characteristics, that is, it has a certain genetic composition. It transmits gene frequencies from generation to generation and adapts to the environment by changing gene frequencies. It is the basic structural unit of the ecological level and the basic functional unit of the ecosystem. From the perspective of molecular biology, a population refers to a group of individuals of the same species that can freely mate and reproduce. It has the sum of all genes in a certain period of time and is called the gene pool of the population. The sum of information is also called the genome of the population (Genome). Combining the definition and understanding of populations with ecology and molecular biology, molecular ecology will study the interaction between populations and the environment at the molecular level, from structural studies (molecular basis and functional studies) and molecular mechanisms. As your main task.

Molecular ecology development

The further development of molecular ecology depends on major breakthroughs in molecular labeling and detection technology?

Objectively speaking, molecular ecology is still a very young discipline. It does not have a recognized academic founder and an iconic academic treatise. Its development is mainly to accurately identify biological macromolecules by tracking accurate molecular marker technology and molecular detection technology. The difference in structure and function, in order to reveal the molecular mechanism of the interaction between biology and the environment, is the most prominent subject feature of molecular biology. Molecular ecology research has always relied on and tracked molecular marker technology and molecular detection technology. Molecular marker technologies include Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP), random amplification DNA amplified polymorphism (RAPD), variable number of tandem repeats polymorphism (VNTRP) and PCR technology; molecular detection technologies include DNA (or RNA) sequence analysis, fragment analysis (length Analysis), single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP), denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), temperature gradient gel electrophoresis (TGGE), denaturing high performance liquid chromatography (Denaturing high performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC). Weber (1989) found a special type of VNTR through PCR amplification and direct sequence determination. The core unit of tandem repeats consists of only 2 bases, called microsatellites (Microsatellites). RFLP is also a good co-dominant marker. With the start of the genome sequencing program and the determination of more protein sequences and structures, microsatellites can reveal higher levels of polymorphism.

Molecular ecology research

The study of the structure and function of molecular ecology may be based on nucleic acid technology, or there may be protein-based technology, which directly studies the expression products of genes. There are two main types of nucleic acid-based technologies: one is the sequence analysis of gene expression, that is, the messenger RNA (mRNA) of the cell is first isolated, which is the transcription product of the functioning gene, and then reverse transcribed into complementary DNA (cDNA). After being labeled and digested, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to replicate and amplify. The sequence of these gene fragments was analyzed to study the law of gene activity. Another technique is the microarray method, which mainly uses the hybridization of labeled cDNA and mRNA to arrange in a microscopic system so that it can study the pattern and rule of gene expression on a larger scale. Both techniques can be used to detect gene expression under different conditions.

However, the intracellular mRNA information does not yet represent the final function of the gene product to form the protein. The richness of the mRNA is not necessarily directly related to the final expression product protein, not to mention that many functional proteins also have post-translational modifications and processing, including proteins. Splicing, so protein research is ultimately needed to supplement nucleic acid analysis data. Relative to the rate of progress of genomic research, the research of proteomics seems to be relatively lagging, the main reason is that the multi-technical problems in the research methods have not been well solved. The most direct analysis of the function of all 100,000 genes is proteome research. From the research of some lower-level biological proteomes that have been completed for the analysis of the complete sequence of the genome in recent years, the most realistic and effective technique is the separation and purification of proteins by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, combined with the quantitative analysis of computers and further using mass spectrometry Identification of isolated proteins, and the use of modern bioinformatics knowledge and technology to process the astronomical data obtained, the research of proteomics can be divided into two stages: the first stage, the establishment of a cell or a A two-dimensional gel map of proteins in a tissue or an organism under "normal" conditions, or a reference map, is the so-called "composition proteome". In the second stage, we need to study the changes of the proteome under various conditions and summarize the laws of life activities from them, which can be called "functional proteome".

At present, the main technical method of molecular ecology is VNTR technology, followed by PCR technology. Nucleic acid sequencing and sequence analysis technology are rapidly developing, and the proportion of allelase technology is relatively small. Although breakthroughs have been made in genome sequencing research, there are still very few species or populations that have successfully decoded the genome sequence. The molecular mechanism of biological and environmental interactions is looking forward to understanding the genome sequence of each species and population. Have to go through a long development process. The development of proteome sequencing has brought new dawn to the study of molecular ecology, making it easier for people to understand the connections and differences between organisms and the environment at a microscopic, more real and direct level. The rapid development of genomic and protein sequence information extraction and bioinformatics with the collection, storage, management, analysis, and provision of biological information as the main content will inevitably make the study of molecular ecology into a molecule that clarifies ecological phenomena The rapid development of the mechanism. ^[1]