Abstract: Microbial molecular ecology, as a new scientific subject, has been developing with the introduction of molecular biology to microbial ecology. In this paper, the mechanism of bioluminescence, the typies of lux(c) genes cloned vectors, the techniques of bioluminescence measurement, and luminescent colony detection for the application of lux(c)marker genes were reviewed. The luminescence-based determining technique could be used in a large scale in microbial molecular ecology and it will play an important role for tracking, determining , and recovering of released bacteria ,especially genetically modified bacteria ,in natural environments. It was demonstrated that this technique was a rapid and economical method with high stability and sensitivity, and strong selectivity.

Key words: Haplocladium microphyllum, water stress, osmo-regulation, antioxidant enzyme system.