Culturomics: illuminating microbial dark matter

feature-image

Play all audios:

'Culturomics' uses multiple high-throughput culture conditions with mass spectroscopy or 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing for the identification of previously unculturable bacterial species


(often termed 'dark matter'). Now, the culturomics process has been further refined and used to double the number of bacterial species isolated from the human gut.


First, the investigators deduced the 18 best culture conditions and implemented new protocols (fresh-sample inoculation and microcolony detection) with a focus on the culture of


Proteobacteria and halophilic or microaerophilic bacteria. Using the refined conditions with a range of stool, small bowel and colonic samples from healthy individuals and patients with


various diseases from different geographical origins, 1,057 prokaryotic species were isolated, including 197 potentially new species. By genome sequencing the new species and comparing the


data with metagenomic studies from the Human Microbiome Project, the researchers confirmed that culturomics enables the culture of microorganisms that correspond to previously unassigned


sequences.


Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: