New tools for prokaryote diversity study

Prokaryote,which is widespread in nature,makes a big biomass and participates in a variety of global material cycles and energy transfer.However,the measurement of prokaryote diversity has been limited by technique for a long time.With the development of new techniques such as high-throughput sequencing technique and biochip,the research approaches for prokaryote diversity study have being changed.At present,Genome Sequencer FLX(GS FLX)and Illumina Genome Analyzer are the major approaches for environmental prokaryote diversity study,and GeoChip is the representative of the biochips.Nevertheless,each new emerging technique has its own characters.Some problems as how to use a mass of sequences to measure the prokaryote diversity and which approaches be more appropriate are the issues confronted by the related researches.This paper reviewed and compared the newest research means and computer program tools for prokaryote diversity study,and summarized the main research approaches adapting to the present technical conditions for this study.