Evaluating rRNA as an indicator of microbial activity in environmental communities: limitations and uses
United States Geological Survey · Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center · +4 more institutions
Abstract
Microbes exist in a range of metabolic states (for example, dormant, active and growing) and analysis of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) is frequently employed to identify the 'active' fraction of microbes in environmental samples. While rRNA analyses are no longer commonly used to quantify a population's growth rate in mixed communities, due to rRNA concentration not scaling linearly with growth rate uniformly across taxa, rRNA analyses are still frequently used toward the more conservative goal of identifying populations that are currently active in a mixed community. Yet, evidence indicates that the general use of rRNA as a reliable indicator of metabolic state in microbial assemblages has serious limitations. This…
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 54.90
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 80
Authors
4- SJSteven J. BlazewiczCorresponding
United States Geological Survey, Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center, University of California, Berkeley
- RLRomain L. Barnard
Agroécologie, Institut Agro Dijon, University of California, Berkeley
- RARebecca A. Daly
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley
- MKMary K. Firestone
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley
Topics & keywords
- Ribosomal RNA
- Biology
- Ecology
- Confounding
- Population
- Genetics
- Statistics
- Demography