Year: 2017
Type: review
Abstract: The cultivation of bacteria is highly biased toward a few phylogenetic groups. Many of the currently underexplored bacterial lineages likely have novel biosynthetic pathways and unknown biochemical features. New cultivation concepts have been developed based on an improved understanding of the ecology of previously not-cultured bacteria. Particularly successful were improved media that mimic the natural types and concentrations of substrates and nutrients, high-throughput cultivation techniques, and approaches that exploit biofilm formation and bacterial interactions. Metagenomics and single-cell genomics can reveal unknown metabolic features of not-yet-cultured bacteria and, if complemented by culture-independent physiological analyses, will help to target functional novelty more efficiently. However, numerous novel types of bacteria that were initially enriched subsequently escaped isolation. Future cultivation work will therefore need to focus on improved subcultivation, purification, and preservation techniques to recover and utilize a larger fraction of microbial diversity.
Source: Annual Review of Microbiology
Authors: Jörg Overmann, Birte Abt, Johannes Sikorski
Language: English
Subfield: Ecology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Award: G8882369465
OpenAlex ID: W2598819529