Prof. Dr. Felix BärlocherDepartment of Biology Mount Allison University 63B York Street Sackville,New Brunswick Canada E4L 1G7 http://www.mta.ca/faculty/science/bio/BIOSITE/FACULTY/felixbaerlocher.html |
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Diversity and Functions of Stream Fungi: the siren song of molecular biology |
| Research on aquatic hyphomycetes has been dominated by process-oriented approaches. The main objectives have been accurate estimates of fungal biomass and production, and measuring fungal impact on plant litter decomposition. In some cases, these estimates have been complemented by community assessments based on spore counts. Many other ecological and evolutionary topics, commonly studied in macroorganisms, were largely inaccessible, in part because of the low morphological complexity of fungal structures and the near impossibility of identifying them in situ. Molecular methods rely on extraction, amplification (PCR) and characterization (DGGE, T-RFLP, sequencing) of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), which occurs in all cells regardless of their reproductive status. This allows more comprehensive characterization of fungal diversity and evolution. Enzymatic activities can be explored at the level of gene presence (DNA amplification and sequencing), gene transcription (reverse transcription of messenger ribonucleic acid [mRNA]), by quantifying the total amount of specified enzymes in a sample via global antibodies, or by estimating their effect on model compounds. Selected actual and potential applications of these molecular approaches are shown to greatly extend the range of useful information. They cannot not, however, completely replace insights from looking at intact organisms with traditional approaches |
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Ort |
| 24.02.2010 15:00 Uhr Großer Hörsaal |
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