[Advances in microbial eco-systems metabolic network study--a review].

Microbial eco-systems metabolic networks (MEMNs) are ubiquitous in nature and are the major drivers of biosphere processes. Here we try to define MEMNs and describe their significances in microbial ecology studies. We also review recent progresses and approaches of MEMNs including highlights of the major discoveries in these studies based on mixed-cultures, high-throughput sequencing and microarray data, computational approaches, and metabolic reconstruction. In addition, we discuss the potential shortcomings of current approaches and propose that the time is ripe to study the energy-based microbial metabolic networks in bioremediation systems, especially under the anaerobic conditions, which will reclaim the wastes to resources.