biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary ...

, a strain is a genetic variant, a subtype or a culture within a biological

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...

. Strains are often seen as inherently artificial concepts, characterized by a specific intent for genetic isolation. This is most easily observed in

microbiology Microbiology () is the scientific study of microorganisms, those being unicellular (single cell), multicellular (cell colony), or acellular (lacking cells). Microbiology encompasses numerous sub-disciplines including virology, bacteriology, ...

where strains are derived from a single cell

colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state' ...

and are typically quarantined by the physical constraints of a Petri dish. Strains are also commonly referred to within

virology Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, the ...

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

, and with rodents used in experimental studies.

Microbiology and virology

It has been said that "there is no universally accepted definition for the terms 'strain', ' variant', and 'isolate' in the virology community, and most virologists simply copy the usage of terms from others". A strain is a genetic variant or subtype of a microorganism (e.g., a

virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Since Dmitri Ivanovsk ...

bacterium Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were am ...

fungus A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately fr ...

). For example, a "flu strain" is a certain biological form of the influenza or "flu" virus. These flu strains are characterized by their differing isoforms of surface proteins. New viral strains can be created due to mutation or swapping of genetic components when two or more viruses infect the same cell in nature. These phenomena are known respectively as antigenic drift and

antigenic shift Antigenic shift is the process by which two or more different strains of a virus, or strains of two or more different viruses, combine to form a new subtype having a mixture of the surface antigens of the two or more original strains. The term is ...

. Microbial strains can also be differentiated by their genetic makeup using metagenomic methods to maximize resolution within species. This has become a valuable tool to analyze the

microbiome A microbiome () is the community of microorganisms that can usually be found living together in any given habitat. It was defined more precisely in 1988 by Whipps ''et al.'' as "a characteristic microbial community occupying a reasonably wel ...

Artificial constructs

Scientists have modified strains of viruses in order to study their behavior, as in the case of the H5N1 influenza virus. While funding for such research has aroused controversy at times due to safety concerns, leading to a temporary pause, it has subsequently proceeded. In biotechnology, microbial strains have been constructed to establish metabolic pathways suitable for treating a variety of applications. Historically, a major effort of metabolic research has been devoted to the field of biofuel production. ''

Escherichia coli ''Escherichia coli'' (),Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. also known as ''E. coli'' (), is a Gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus '' Esc ...

'' is most common species for prokaryotic strain engineering. Scientists have succeeded in establishing viable minimal genomes from which new strains can be developed. These minimal strains provide a near guarantee that experiments on genes outside the minimal framework will not be effected by non-essential pathways. Optimized strains of ''E. coli'' are typically used for this application. ''E. coli'' are also often used as a chassis for the expression of simple proteins. These strains, such as BL21, are genetically modified to minimize protease activity, hence enabling potential for high efficiency industrial scale protein production. Strains of

yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to constit ...

s are the most common subjects of eukaryotic genetic modification, especially with respect to industrial fermentation.

Plants

The term has no official ranking status in botany; the term refers to the collective descendants produced from a common ancestor that share a uniform morphological or physiological character. A strain is a designated group of offspring that are either descended from a modified plant (produced by conventional breeding or by biotechnological means), or which result from genetic mutation. As an example, some

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

strains are made by inserting new genetic material into a rice plant, all the descendants of the genetically modified rice plant are a strain with unique

genetic information A nucleic acid sequence is a succession of bases signified by a series of a set of five different letters that indicate the order of nucleotides forming alleles within a DNA (using GACT) or RNA (GACU) molecule. By convention, sequences are u ...

that is passed on to later generations; the strain designation, which is normally a number or a formal name, covers all the plants that descend from the originally modified plant. The rice plants in the strain can be bred to other rice strains or

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture ...

s, and if desirable plants are produced, these are further bred to stabilize the desirable traits; the stabilized plants that can be propagated and "come true" (remain identical to the parent plant) are given a

name and released into production to be used by farmers.

Rodents

A laboratory mouse or rat strain is a group of animals that is genetically uniform. Strains are used in laboratory experiments. Mouse strains can be inbred, mutated, or genetically modified, while rat strains are usually inbred. A given inbred rodent population is considered genetically identical after 20 generations of sibling-mating. Many rodent strains have been developed for a variety of disease models, and they are also often used to test drug toxicity.

Insects

The

common fruit fly ''Drosophila melanogaster'' is a species of fly (the taxonomic order Diptera) in the family Drosophilidae. The species is often referred to as the fruit fly or lesser fruit fly, or less commonly the "vinegar fly" or "pomace fly". Starting with ...

(''Drosophila melanogaster'') was among the first organisms used for genetic analysis, has a simple

genome In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding ...

, and is very well understood. It has remained a popular model organism for many other reasons, like the ease of its breeding and maintenance, and the speed and volume of its reproduction. Various specific strains have been developed, including a flightless version with stunted wings (also used in the pet trade as live food for small reptiles and amphibians).

References

{{Reflist

External links

Coli Genetic Stock Center

EcoliWiki ''E. coli'' strain index

International Mouse Strain Resource (IMSR)

Rat strain index
Microbiology terms Virology Taxa by rank Infraspecific virus taxa