Technology
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is used in microbiology to amplify (replicate many times) a single DNA sequence. If required, the sequence can also be altered in predetermined ways. Real-time PCR is used for the rapid detection of microorganisms and is currently employed in diagnostic clinical microbiology laboratories, environmental analysis, food microbiology, and many other fields. The closely related technique of quantitative PCR (qPCR) permits the quantitative measurement of DNA or RNA molecules and is used to estimate the densities of the reference pathogens in food, water and environmental samples. qPCR provides both specificity and quantification of target microorganisms.
Gel electrophoresis is used routinely in microbiology to separate DNA, RNA, or protein molecules using an electric field by virtue of their size, shape or electric charge.
Southern blotting, northern blotting, western blotting and Eastern blotting are molecular techniques for detecting the presence of microbial DNA sequences (Southern), RNA sequences (northern), protein molecules (western) or protein modifications (Eastern).
DNA microarrays are used in microbiology as the modern alternative to the "blotting" techniques. Microarrays permit the exploration of thousands of sequences at one time. This technique is used in molecular microbiology to detect the presence of pathogens in a sample (air, water, organ tissue, etc.). It is also used to determine the genetic differences between two microbial strains.
DNA sequencing and genomics have been used for many decades in molecular microbiology studies. Due to their relatively small size, viral genomes were the first to be completely analysed by DNA sequencing. A huge range of sequence and genomic data is now available for a number of species and strains of microorganisms.
RNA interference (RNAi) was discovered as a cellular gene regulation mechanism in 1998, but several RNAi-based applications for gene silencing have already made it into clinical trials. RNA interference (RNAi) technology has formed the basis of novel tools for biological research and drug discovery.
Read more about this topic: Molecular Microbiology
Famous quotes containing the word technology:
“One can prove or refute anything at all with words. Soon people will perfect language technology to such an extent that they’ll be proving with mathematical precision that twice two is seven.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“The successor to politics will be propaganda. Propaganda, not in the sense of a message or ideology, but as the impact of the whole technology of the times.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
“Our technology forces us to live mythically, but we continue to think fragmentarily, and on single, separate planes.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)