Researchers in a range of environmental and biological sciences examine microarray technology as it is used in environmental microbiology and microbial ecology to analyze microbial communities. Among the topics are developing and evaluating functional gene arrays with GeoChip as an example, microarray of 16S rRna gene probes for quantifying population differences across microbiome samples, GeoChip applications for analyzing soil and water microbial communities in oil-contaminated sites, microbial diagnostic microarrays for detecting and typing waterborne pathogens, and the broad-spectrum detection of viral and bacterial pathogen by microarrays. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation ©2014 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
Microorganisms are the most diverse group of organisms and play important and distinctive roles in their ecosystems. They interact with their peers and other organisms (e.g., plants, animals) to form a complicated food web, significantly impacting ecosystem functions and services. However, understanding the diversity, composition, structure, function, activity, and dynamics of microbial communities remains challenging. Over the past decade, microarray-based technologies have been developed to address such challenges. This book is focused on current microarray technologies and their applications in environmental microbiology. In the first chapter, microarray technologies and applications are briefly introduced and, in following chapters, microarray probe design, development and evaluation, and data analysis are described in detail. In later chapters, more attention is paid to phylogenetic arrays (e.g., PhyloChip) and functional gene arrays (e.g., GeoChip). These generic tools - for analyzing microbial communities from disparate environments, ecosystems, and habitats (including soil, water, sediment, animals, and humans) - are described in detail with examples of specific applications. Also included are microarrays for analyzing microbial communities from specific environments, such as soil, bioleaching ecosystems, and human microbiomes, as well as microarrays for detecting specific microorganisms (e.g., pathogens) in the environment. The book's contributors also discuss the advantages and limitations of microarray technologies compared to high throughput sequencing technologies. This book is recommended for anyone working on microbial communities, biofilms, or environmental microbiology.
