Index >> Microbes and Lithosphere >> Molecular Techniques for Analysis of Soil Microbial Communities

Molecular techniques for analysis of soil microbial communities
Molecular techniques have recognised the limitations of culture-based
approaches (lack of universal media for analysing microbial populations).

Molecular techniques circumvent these shortcomings by targeting molecules that serve as markers of a particular type of microbe, and which can be recovered or assayed without having to culture the microbes.

Many types of molecular techniques that have been applied to for the analysis of soil microbial populations including cell membrane components (fatty acids), cell surface components (proteins/ carbohydrates exposed on the surface of the cell) and nucleic acids (DNA and RNA). The latter have been the focus of the greatest attention.